On a spring evening in Paris, more than 300 twentysomethings are packed inside the striking headquarters of the French Communist Party, designed in the mid-1960s by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. Despite the setting, this is no political gathering. The modernist Espace Niemeyer has been transformed for the night into a concert venue for premium subscribers of French streaming platform Deezer. Parisian rapper Franglish, who is due to play a sold-out show at a 20,000-seat stadium later in the week, lights up the stage in this far more intimate setting with his blend of rap, R&B and pop. At times, his voice is drowned out by fans singing almost every lyric in unison.

As frustration grows with Swedish platform Spotify’s algorithm-driven playlists and controversial royalties model – which critics accuse of short-changing musicians – Deezer, founded in 2007, is pursuing a different path. Under its CEO, Alexis Lanternier, the Paris-based company is doubling down on what it calls an “artist-centric” strategy: prioritising fair compensation for artists, fighting AI-generated music fraud and offering live events that connect artists with listeners.

“Users want more meaningful connections and physical experiences are usually what leave a mark,” says Lanternier, sitting in his office overlooking a quiet square near Moulin Rouge. “Music streaming platforms offer the same catalogue so the difference lies in how we position ourselves and what features we offer.”

With just 10 million paying subscribers, Deezer is far smaller than Spotify, Apple Music or Amazon Music, which have 268 million, 93 million and 80 million subscribers respectively. But it’s betting that intimacy, ethical payment policies and emotional connection can win where scale cannot. Though Deezer has expanded into countries including Brazil, Germany and South Africa, it still relies heavily on France for its subscriber base and partnerships with domestic telecom providers. The company’s largest backer since 2016 has been British-American businessman Leonard Blavatnik’s holding company Access Industries; Orange and the billionaire Pinault family are also among its key investors.

Lanternier, who joined in September, arrived in time to announce a significant milestone: Deezer had a positive free cash flow for the first time. “It’s an amazing moment because we now have room for long-term thinking,” he says. “We spend a lot of time talking to our users, especially those from younger generations. What we’re seeing is that music streaming has not evolved quickly enough in the past 10 years to meet their needs.”

Deezer’s strategy involves rewarding artists who its subscribers actively support. Its “artist-centric” model seeks to compensate musicians based on genuine engagement, unlike the dominant “market-centric” system, in which royalties are pooled and distributed based on total streams. Under the latter system, which heavily favours big-name acts, even if a subscriber listens to more esoteric artists, most of their monthly fee goes to the chart-toppers. This has the effect of sidelining independent musicians and niche genres. To address this imbalance, Deezer signed a deal with Universal Music in 2023 to double royalties for artists with at least 1,000 monthly streams from a minimum of 500 unique listeners. A similar agreement followed in January with France’s Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music.

These deals also seek to tackle the growing problem of “fake” music. The rapid rise of generative AI has already triggered a wave of lawsuits. Last year a man in the US was arrested and charged with allegedly using AI tools to create thousands of fake songs and stream them billions of times using automated bots, claiming more than $10m (€8.8m) in royalty payments. According to Deezer, about 18 per cent of songs uploaded on its platform – more than 20,000 tracks per day – are now fully generated by AI. “Fighting against fraud is another way of maximising artist remuneration. That’s a big thing,” says Lanternier.

While Spotify has reportedly promoted so-called “ghost artists” on popular play­lists to reduce its royalty payouts, Deezer has developed a cutting-edge detection tool to filter AI-generated tracks from algorithmic recommendations. “We are the only industry where you have just a few platforms that have the power to stop this kind of thing from happening,” says Lanternier. “And we [at Deezer] are the ones who are doing something about it.”

Technology has changed the way that many of us listen to music – and not always in a good way. With much of the world’s song library at our fingertips, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. To help users “take back control” from the algorithm, Deezer is launching a series of features to help people to customise their listening experience more effectively. These include a dislike button for songs or artists and a history of recommended tracks that users can edit to reflect their current preferences. “You might see a recommendation and think, ‘That was me two months ago but I don’t feel like that any more,’” says Lanternier. “Increasing transparency about how the algorithm works is a major focus for us.”

While Spotify and other platforms have poured resources into podcasts and audiobooks, Deezer has chosen to stay focused on music, hoping that this will help to deliver a more personal, emotionally resonant experience. The exclusive concerts for premium subscribers in Paris are a part of this. “It’s important for us to humanise our app,” says Azzedine Fall, Deezer’s director of music and culture, raising his voice above the noise of the crowd at the Franglish show. “Our essential role is as an intermediary – and that’s what we’re doing here tonight. We’re bringing fans closer to the music and making the brand as human and as tangible as possible.”

Deezer has a long way to go before it can pose a real threat to its Swedish rival. But on a local level, it’s not just users who seem to appreciate its approach. “These days you get tonnes of content on social media but sometimes you lose real connection,” says Franglish, reflecting on his performance a few weeks later. “Deezer is trying to bring that back. That’s a pleasure because it’s why we make music in the first place.”