Despite the Bigger Name, Spotify Is Slowly Falling Behind Deezer

Deezer doesn't get as much recognition as other music streaming services, but that's down to just one thing, it's not available in the US and it's not going to be for a while to come. Yet, that's precisely the reason for its success so far.

Deezer attacked the rest of the world, the entire rest of the world, and left the US to countless other music streaming services to fight over.

In doing so, it was able to ramp up users and, importantly, pay users quite significantly. It's now up to three million paying subscribers, a 114 percent increase during 2012.

Spotify, which is touted as the big name in the space, for good reason, only has some five million subscribers, but its growth rate is smaller than Deezer's.

Spotify is available in plenty of European countries and a few other places around the world, but it's still far behind Deezer and doesn't plan to try to catch up.

It does have 20 million free users, but Deezer has just unveiled a free option as well, which should help it lure in a lot more users than it has now and convert them into paying users later on.

It's too soon yet to call winners, assuming there is going to be a winner in a market where no one is actually making money. But Deezer's strategy seems to be paying off.