As it attempts to keep up with better funded rivals like Spotify and Apple, the streaming music service Deezer has told Reuters it plans to file for an IPO on the Paris stock exchange. The company currently has 6.3 million paying subscribers, compared with Spotify's 20 million. The big new contender in the space is Apple, which has reportedly grown its music service to 15 million users in just its first three months, although it remains to be seen how many will stick around once their free trial ends.

Deezer CEO Hans-Holger Albrecht told Reuters that the company will use the money it raises during the public offering to improve its product and distribution. Unlike Spotify, Deezer makes little money from advertising. Instead it partners with mobile carriers to reach customers. More than two-thirds of Deezer's paying customers get the service as part of a package from their mobile carrier, not as a stand-alone product, for which the company charges 9.99 euros per month.

Deezer is also focused on different countries than Spotify, targeting emerging markets in Asia and Africa where users are more accustomed to bundling additional services with their wireless offering. "The streaming music market will not be 'winner takes all,'" Albrecht told Reuters. "So we are confident in our ability to carve out a place."