Looking to follow recent moves by Apple and Amazon, Google has purchased the online streaming service Songza. The deal is for a reported $39 million.

Songza first came to light in 2007. Now, the service has about 5.5 million active users.

The streaming music service seeks to create "curated" playlists that are catered to the listener. These playlists are handled by humans rather than computer algorithms. Musicians and Rolling Stone magazine writers often contribute to the playlists. 

A Songza user logs into the app and depending on the time, the day and the user's mood, a playlist is recommended. For example, say it's Wednesday afternoon, it will say "play music for..." and then several categories will be listed. Categories like "working in an office," "driving," "boosting your energy," and more.

This is different from Pandora's streaming service which requires users to type in a song, artist or genre to create their own custom station. With Songza, listeners get a more variety of music, based on their current mood and situation they are in (there's even a "play music for looking at pictures of your ex" choice).

Songza says they have the advantage over their competitors with the way their playlists are created. They say it's easier and less time consuming.

"We're moving to a time when context is king, when people don't have to find things," Songza Chief Executive Elias Roman said in an interview with CNET News. Google's takeover comes at an important time in that shift, he said. "Technology is about to work a lot harder for us. It's a cool thing to be a small part of that." 

Google's purchase of Songza comes at a time when streaming music services are becoming more and more competitive. Just recently, Amazon debuted their Prime Music service and Apple, which just bought Beats Audio for over $3 billion, will likely add more streaming features as well.

In addition to the purchase of Songza, which has been widely expected for over a month, Google's video service YouTube is expected to introduce a streaming radio service as well.