Spotify announced on Thursday that it will be acquiring The Echo Nest, a music intelligence company that has helped power Rdio, Vevo, iHeartRadio and dozens of other services in the past. Spotify has already claimed its spot near the top of the music streaming service market, but with The Echo Nest on board, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek believes his company will be able to strengthen its bonds with brands and partners even further.
“We’ve been fans of The Echo Nest for a really long time and honoured to have their talented team join Spotify,” said Ek. “At Spotify, we want to get people to listen to more music. We are hyper focused on creating the best user experience and it starts with building the best music intelligence platform on the planet. With The Echo Nest joining Spotify, we will make a big leap forward in our quest to play you the best music possible.”
Although Spotify will own The Echo Nest going forward, the company will continue to operate out of its own locations, and the API will remain free for developer use. The full release follows below.
Spotify Acquires The Echo Nest
Deal Further Strengthens Spotify’s Music Discovery Expertise
New York, NY/Somerville, MA – March 6, 2014 – Spotify today announced that it will acquire the industry’s leading music intelligence company, The Echo Nest. The acquisition supports Spotify’s strategy to grow global music consumption and overall revenue back to the music industry by building the best user experience and music discovery engine for millions of global fans.
This deal will allow Spotify to leverage The Echo Nest’s in depth musical understanding and tools for curation to drive music discovery for millions of users around the globe. The addition of The Echo Nest to Spotify will also strengthen Spotify’s ability to help brands and partners build amazing music experiences for their audiences.
“We’ve been fans of The Echo Nest for a really long time and honoured to have their talented team join Spotify,” said Daniel Ek, Founder and CEO, Spotify. “At Spotify, we want to get people to listen to more music. We are hyper focused on creating the best user experience and it starts with building the best music intelligence platform on the planet. With The Echo Nest joining Spotify, we will make a big leap forward in our quest to play you the best music possible.”
“Since founding The Echo Nest, Brian Whitman and Tristan Jehan have created a company completely and beautifully obsessed with understanding the world of music to help fans discover more music,” said Jim Lucchese, CEO of The Echo Nest. “Joining forces with Spotify gives us the opportunity to continue doing so as part of the fastest-growing service in the world; we’re thrilled to be part of a team equally as passionate about connecting more people with more music.”
The Echo Nest will continue to operate out of its headquarters in Somerville, MA where it has been a key component of the growing Boston-area tech scene. The Echo Nest will also continue to operate in San Francisco. The Echo Nest API will remain free and open to support its robust developer ecosystem. The developer community is crucial to the success of both Spotify and The Echo Nest and will remain a priority for the combined companies.
About Spotify
Spotify is an award-winning digital music service that gives you on-demand access to over 20 million tracks. Our dream is to make all the world’s music available instantly to everyone, wherever and whenever they want it. Spotify makes it easier than ever to discover, manage and share music with your friends, while making sure that artists get a fair deal.Spotify is now available in 55 markets across the world, with more than 24 million active users and over 6 million paying subscribers: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Denmark, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan.
Since its launch in Sweden in 2008, Spotify has driven more than a billion US dollars to rights holders. Spotify is already the second biggest source of digital music revenue for labels in Europe (IFPI, 2011) and the biggest and most successful music streaming service of its kind globally.
