Deezer’s free users can now stream via Google Home and Nest speakers

Deezer, rival to Spotify and Apple Music in the music streaming space, has opened up its free tier to streaming on Google Home, Nest Audio and any other speakers or screens with Google Assistant built in.

In order for Deezer users to get their music via their Google Assistant packed smart speaker, they will first need to set Deezer as the default music player in the Google Home app. After that, playing music via a smart speaker is as simple as saying “hey Google, play my music.”

Alternatively, you can ask for a specific playlist, music by a certain artist, songs to fit your mood (“play happy music”) or ask for your “Flow”, which Deezer says will play tracks “personalised to your exact music tastes.”

Of course, like other streaming services’ free offerings on smart speakers, the experience does have its drawbacks to give you incentive to upgrade to a paid account. Deezer says that all playlists will be in shuffle mode, and it doesn’t sound like you can ask for specific tracks. You get six song skips an hour, and there will be adverts too.

All the same, it’s hard to argue with the low, low price of “free”.

“We want everyone to play their favourite tunes at home, even if they’re not a paying subscriber,” said Nicolas Pinoteau, Deezer’s director of partnership integration. “So whether you like chill out music or working out to the latest fitness playlists, just ask Google Assistant to play from Deezer.”

The company says that its free tier will work on Google Assistant based smart speakers and displays from today, rolling out to the UK, US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico and Spain. 

If your smart home’s brain is provided by Amazon’s Alexa, you’ve been able to enjoy Deezer’s free tier of streaming music for some time too. It works much the same way, only you need to link Deezer on the Alexa app.