Deezer App Studio Challenges Spotify For Developers' Hearts

Spotify-rivaling streaming music service Deezer is ramping up its assault on its better-known rival, launching an apps platform to promote software and services that hook into its new music APIs. Deezer App Studio consists of a double-whammy of developer APIs to inject Deezer functionality into third-party apps as well as put their own app services inside of Deezer, and an App Center for downloading new titles for desktop, web, and mobile.

iOS and Android apps will be supported in the App Center, and there's a Javascript SDK as well for web use. Deezer has six basic plugins to choose between, which developers can customize to change the look and the content. That includes a Widget Player for playlists, a "My top tracks" player for either the user or the service's favorite playlist, an artist discography, related artists, Deezer's own top charts, and a basic "Now Playing" box.

A number of developers have already jumped on board. PIAS has an independent artist/label tool, while Twusic has a social radio that uses Twitter sharing to build playlists. Shuffler is a curated music blog aggregator, while What's That Track? builds Deezer's music into a social quiz. Lalilala is described as "Draw Something for music" while Wallzr makes custom desktop wallpapers based on playlists. Finally, there's eDJing, which is a basic two-track mixer tool, and Spotizr, which rebuilds Spotify playlists in Deezer.

There's also improved Facebook integration, which now allows Deezer to post music updates directly into the Facebook Notification Center, and share tracks with friends even if they're not using the service. The iOS and Android Deezer apps have a new injection of social too, with a "Friends" feature to show you what your friends are listening to.

Finally, there's easier mobile navigation, with quicker playlist creation and speedier access to artist and album pages. It's also easier to share music with others.

[via Music Ally]