About

Having carved out an impressive share of the highly competitive music streaming market by contending with some of the most powerful and internationally-recognised companies in the world, Deezer has relied upon great teamwork as a necessity throughout their roughly 10-year history. Deezer’s legal team, led by vice president for legal and business affairs Adele Zangs, is no exception as she is keen to make clear. ‘Two things really came up when we discussed what sets us apart as a team’, she says, ‘and the first is that there is a real sharing of knowledge and skills between members of the team, with the latest decisions in music rights being shared and briefed fully’. ‘The second’, she goes on, ‘is that we really care about and support one another’, suggesting strong interpersonal bonds and a high level of morale within the team. They have also matched the pace of innovation company-wide by introducing new methods and systems to increase their productivity: ‘we have moved almost entirely to digital “paperwork”, and undertook full internal training for music rights which had huge success’. As well as operational change, Zangs also describes herself as ‘very happy’ with her team’s work in assisting Deezer’s launch of the first music streaming service anywhere in Africa. ‘This project was incredibly complex and presented unique challenges’, Zangs explains. ‘What is difficult in Africa is that the market is all prepaid rather than contract based, so we had to adapt our product to the local networks. We managed to create a joint venture with Vodacom to create this service’. The team is also well embedded with the decision-making elements of the company, with Zangs being ‘proud of the fact that we are included very heavily in decision making processes at the company. We know the company very well’, she goes on, ‘and have a great depth of knowledge on all Deezer’s products.’