French music-streaming service Deezer plans IPO

French music-streaming service Deezer said Tuesday it plans to launch a public share offering on the Paris stock exchange in the hopes of consolidating its position in the on-line music market.

"Entering the stock market is an important step for Deezer at a decisive time for the music industry," the company said in a statement.

"The music-streaming market, still young, is growing faster now and set to become the main means of music distribution," CEO Hans-Holger Albrecht said.

Operations director Simon Baldeyrou told AFP the move would give Deezer access to "a more diversified and more international base".

"It will also give the company greater visibility," he said.

Founded in 2007, the young company raised its last private funding of 100 million euros ($111.7 million) from Russian-American billionaire Len Blavatnik in 2012.

With six million subscribers and 16 million individual users each month, Deezer needs to speed up its development especially on the international level where the competition is fierce in music streaming.

Its main rival, Sweden's Spotify, claims 75 million users of whom 20 million subscribe to its paying version and is valued at more than eight billion dollars.

Competitive heat is also being felt from US giant Apple which launched its music-streaming service on June 30.

Deezer in 2014 reported a 53 percent jump in revenue to 142 million euros.