Master Quality Authenticated (MQA), the award-winning music technology, perfectly captures and reproduces the sound of the original studio recording in a file that’s small enough to stream. Over the last 15 months, MQA has concluded deals with all three major record labels, as well as Merlin on behalf of the independent label community. But while content in MQA continues to grow daily, until now there was only one streaming option available from one of the major service providers. The agreement with Deezer changes all that... at a global scale.
The deal will enable MQA’s technology to be integrated into Deezer’s platform, as well as across the service’s ecosystem of hardware partners and connected devices. While MQA’s commercial roll-out is still in its early stages, both companies already share several partners, including leading audio brands such as Bluesound, LG, Onkyo, MOON by Simaudio and Sony.
Deezer is a privately held company, headquartered in Paris with offices in London, Berlin, Miami and around the world. In addition to its signature feature, Flow, a personal soundtrack that uses smart data and algorithms, along with personal recommendations to play the tracks users want to hear, Deezer’s music streaming service boasts over 43 million songs, and is live in 185 countries, with more than 12 million active users across the globe. Deezer service is available on any device, including smartphone, tablet, PC, laptop, home sound system, connected car or smart TV.
Mike Jbara, CEO of MQA, commented, “This partnership has great synergy as we already work closely with several of Deezer’s hardware partners. We’re looking forward to a close collaboration.”
At IFA 2017, Deezer also announced an expansion of its high fidelity audio offering through the integration of voice control and a broader partner ecosystem. Following the launch of Deezer on Google Home, Deezer is making its high fidelity service available to wifi speakers which support Google Cast. Consumers will be able to access Deezer HiFi on Chromecast Audio or on any Chromecast built-in speaker with the use of Deezer’s mobile app. Furthermore, speaker manufacturers that integrate Google Assistant will be able to offer Deezer HiFi through voice control in English in US, UK, Canada and Australia.
Formerly referred to as Deezer Elite, the newly rebranded Deezer HiFi will now, over the next few months, be extending its offering to Sony, Samsung, Yamaha, Bang & Olufsen, Onkyo, Pioneer, AudioPro & Devialet, through Google Cast support or direct integration into partners’ device applications. Previously available exclusively through Sonos, this expansion will enable a greater number of music enthusiasts to access HRA materials, through downloads of FLAC files, or streaming in MQA.
Priced at $19.99 per month, Deezer HiFi streams at 1,411 kbps.
deezer.com | www.mqa.co.uk
