Deezer Premium review

Some people reading this may think back to a time when sifting through records at the local music spot was how you discovered new music, but for me, that process was downloading whatever I could from services like Limewire. Luckily, we now have music streaming services that make it significantly easier to start building your music library (legally). We’ve already looked at some of the more popular services like Spotify and Apple Music, and today we’re going to take a look at the high-quality streaming service Deezer.

Editor’s note: this Deezer review was updated on September 26, 2022, with formatting updates, statistic updates, and answers to frequently asked questions. 

What is Deezer?

If you don’t know, Deezer is an audio streaming service that, like Tidal, specializes in high-quality audio. However, that doesn’t mean it’s the only thing the company has to offer, it’s just an option. Deezer, unlike Spotify or Apple Music, has a library of lossless audio files that you can stream/download to your device if you choose to. If not, the service still prioritizes sound quality in that it’s fairly easy and straightforward for the average listener to choose sound quality and EQ settings that fit their listening preferences.

While Deezer isn’t exactly a household name here in the States, it isn’t a small company that you should overlook. The service is available in 180 different countries and has more than 16 million active listeners. Its music library consists of an impressive 90 million tracks with most of them being high-quality files readily available for you to listen to.

How do you download Deezer?

Deezer is available pretty much everywhere. You can get the mobile app on both the Play Store and the App Store. If you’re not big on mobile and plan on mainly listening via desktop, there are also desktop apps available for both Mac and PC. If all else fails, you can always use the web player to get access to your music library.

For smart home or home audio enthusiasts, Deezer also works closely with a number of brands to get its service on everything from Google Nest Audio and Amazon Echo devices to Sonos speakers and Onkyo receivers. For a full list of compatible devices make sure to check out its website, but chances are you’re covered. Initially, the Apple HomePod was not listed, but the Apple Homepod mini does work with Deezer for voice access to your library. You can always AirPlay to the speaker from your phone. Google Cast people will be happy to find the app also supports that as well.

Voice assistant complications

We reached out to Deborah Jourdan, head of North and South America at Deezer to inquire about some of the complications with working with the assistants.

“It’s actually quite easy to use voice control with smart voice assistants like Google Home, Amazon Alexa and Siri. HiFi subscribers should update their settings to HiFi, and it will automatically apply to voice assistant. For example, just ask Google to play your personal playlists, editorial playlists, artists, albums, songs, genres, moods and even your personal Flow. If Deezer is your default music player, you can start commands with “Ok Google, Play my Flow,” or “Ok Google, play Lizzo.” If Deezer isn’t your default music player, make sure to add “on Deezer” at the end like this, “Ok Google, Play my Flow on Deezer. If you prefer using Siri, you can now use Siri to quickly access your music by saying, “Hey Siri” followed by a command such as “play my Flow” or “play my favorite tracks.”

So if you’re looking to play music mainly via the personal assistant on your phone Deezer makes it pretty simple to do so, even with higher quality streaming if you’re a HiFi subscriber.

How much does a Deezer subscription cost?

If you want a better experience, then be prepared to pay monthly. Thankfully, the cost of a Deezer subscription is no more expensive than any of the other major streaming services. Your options are as follows:

• Deezer Premium ($9.99/month)
• Deezer HiFi ($14.99/month)
• Deezer Family ($14.99/month)
• Student option ($4.99/month), if you can confirm that you’re enrolled in university

The benefit of a paid subscription is basically the reverse of the free plan. You won’t be bothered with those pesky ads, you’ll be able to use Deezer on up to three devices (mobile, desktop, or speaker), unlimited skips, and an offline mode. The HiFi plan gives you access to the high-quality FLAC library that Deezer offers, while the family plan offers up to six profiles for you and your family members.

Unfortunately, there isn’t an option to have a HiFi Family plan combo, so if that’s something that you and your audiophile family are looking for then you should probably check out the Tidal family plans.

What audio content can you find?

Music

Again, Deezer has a library of over 90 million songs that you can choose from. Whether you want jazz or classic rock, they got you covered. I don’t notice any significant gaps in their offerings compared to other major platforms. If you don’t feel like searching for songs though, Deezer has dozens of editors making new playlists and updating old ones.

Speaking of playlists, one feature that I love is the “Flow” playlist that Deezer offers. Using what I can only assume is machine learning, it creates an endless playlist for you of songs that you might like based on what it thinks you like and mixes it into a playlist with songs you’ve already listened to. If you’ve used Spotify at all, then you know how great the Discover feature is. Flow does more or less the same thing but instead of just a few songs, the playlist never ends. While I admit that it takes a minute to learn your preferences, Deezer does a better job of predicting songs I like than other services like Spotify.

Podcasts

Aside from music, Deezer also offers podcasts. As of 2015, there were over 40,000 that were available to listen to. That sounds like a lot, and it is, but about half of the podcasts that I listen to regularly are not available on Deezer. That obviously isn’t a problem if you use another podcast app like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, PocketCast, etc., but it’s something you should know if you’re a big podcast listener. When I asked Deborah Jourdan if there was a more up-to-date number of podcasts currently available, she said, “We are always adding new podcasts, so we don’t have a set number to share at this time.”

Is there an offline mode for Deezer?

Yes, if you’re looking to save files to your device for offline playback you can do so with Deezer. The catch is that this option is only available on the paid plans. If you’re using the free version with ads, you won’t be able to download files to your device. Thankfully, downloading songs is super simple and all you need to do is switch a toggle on the playlist or album that you want to download.

Does Deezer have good sound quality?

On Deezer Premium, you get two sound quality options to choose from, “Standard” or “Better.” Standard quality will stream your songs at 128kbps while better quality will stream at 320kbps which is exactly the same as Spotify.

If you want to pay $14.99 USD/month to take advantage of its high-quality FLAC library, then you can expect 16-bit/44.1 kHz files. If you’re going to subscribe to Deezer HiFi, make sure your mobile device can support those playback rates.

Does Deezer support 360 audio?

High-quality streaming isn’t the only thing that the HiFi plan on Deezer gets you. You’ll also be able to enjoy the 360 Reality Audio tracks by downloading a separate app called 360 by Deezer (iOS and Android). 360 Reality Audio is the newest push by Sony to bring a new format for audio streaming. 360 Reality Audio is a new way of mixing audio that allows the engineers to make the instruments sound like they’re placed in space around you.

The result is a pretty interesting experience as songs that you think you know like the back of your hand give you a new experience. Is it revolutionary? Sony certainly hopes so, but only time will tell. Unfortunately, I am unable to use this feature as I only have a Premium account and not a HiFi one.

How do you use Deezer, and control playback?

Deezer is extremely easy to navigate both on mobile and on desktop. When you open the app you’re immediately taken to the “Music” screen, which is topped by playlists that the Deezer algorithm makes specifically for you based on what you’ve been listening to. Under that are recommended playlists, followed by new releases and timely curated playlists that are relevant to the time of year (e.g., love-related playlists around Valentine’s Day).

When listening to music you get all the standard controls for playback. There’s the play, pause, and back buttons and you can also scrub through the track to get to whatever part of the song you need to. You can also like songs by tapping on the little heart symbol. Doing so will add the track to the “Favorites” section of the app which serves as your library. It will also update your Flow playlist to reflect your ever-growing taste in music.

One minor quirk is when you’re listening to a song on mobile, and open the “Search” screen, you only get three playback options (pause, like, or next). If you want to start a song over while looking for your next tune, you can’t. It isn’t a big deal, but it’s a small tweak that would make it just a little more convenient to use while navigating my way through a busy subway station.

How much does Deezer pay artists?

Streaming services are notorious for not paying artists, but Deezer isn’t one of the worst culprits. From data sourced by independent artists, you can see that Deezer sits right in the middle of the pack, paying $0.00567 per stream. In other words, for every 176.3 streams the artist you’re listening to gets $1. That might seem small (because it is) but it’s also more than what Apple, Spotify, or Google pays artists on their platforms. Please keep in mind, though, that these numbers aren’t official, nor should you come away with thinking that the payment structure is this simple. These are merely ballparks provided from a third-party source.

Source: The Trichordist

Should you get Deezer?

If you don’t already have a subscription to a music streaming service and are just testing out the market, I would give Deezer a fair shot. It has an easy-to-navigate app on both mobile and desktop, and it plays well with plenty of speaker systems including Sonos and Google Cast. Plus, both the premium and family plans are priced the same as all the other major competitors, so you’re not getting ripped off. If you must have the option to stream FLAC files from anywhere and have a compatible device, then the HiFi option is also not bad at $14.99/month USD.

Speaking of which, the only negative aspect to Deezer that I think will be a problem for people is the popularity of Spotify and Apple Music. If you’re sharing songs, playlists, or albums via social or messages to your friends, chances are they’re not using Deezer and won’t be able to play the full track. Thankfully, that isn’t a you problem and sounds more like a them problem, but if you like sharing your favorite songs that’s something to keep in mind.

Sure, Deezer doesn’t have the live radio or Apple Music or the Yearly Spotify round-ups that always go viral towards the end of the year, but if you don’t care about any of those shiny features and just want a solid streaming service that will give you the best sound quality you can get, then Deezer might just be for you.

Frequently asked questions about Deezer