Spotify Buys Analytics Firm For Big Data Music Streaming

Spotify has acquired data analytics firm Seed Scientific as it looks to gain an upper hand in the increasingly competitive music streaming market.

The company, founded in 2013, has previously delivered algorithms and data-driven solutions for clients including the likes of Audi, Unilever, the United Nations, as well as Beats Music (now owned by Apple).

Exclusive Use

Financial terms of the acquisition were not revealed, but it appears that Seed Scientific’s team (approximately 20 people) and technology will now become the foundation of a new advanced analytics unit at Spotify.

It is reported that Spotify will now have exclusive use of the company’s technology, and the new unit will be based in New York under the leadership of Seed Scientific’s founder and CEO Adam Bly.

The acquisition is a sign of Spotify’s preparation ahead of the looming music streaming showdown with Apple Music, which will launch in 100 countries on 30 June on iOS, Mac and Windows (an Android version will arrive shortly after).

Apple of course is not the only tech heavyweight to ready a music streaming service to rival Spotify, as Google Music has also thrown its hat into the ring.

But it seems that Spotify intends to use Seed Scientific’s technology to allow to better understand how customers, artists, and indeed brands interact with its streaming music service.

And the fact that Spotify now has exclusive use of the technology, could be a very important differentiator to its rivals, as it could allow it to offer listeners a much more accurate recommendation of what to hear next for example.

“Adam and the entire team at Seed Scientific blew us away with their insights around data and analytics, and how to apply those insights to solve real world problems for clients,” said Henrik Landgren, Spotify’s VP of analytics.

“We are incredibly excited to welcome Seed Scientific to Spotify as we continue to build a world class analytics team that will allow us to accelerate our plan to leverage data and insights throughout the entire organization.”

“Seed Scientific was founded to advance ‘Scientific Thinking’ in the world using data,” said Adam Bly. “Today, our algorithms, insights, and applications are beneath the surface of major brands, NGOs, and governments. We are thrilled to now be joining forces with Spotify – a pioneer in shaping culture with data – to create the leading advanced analytics organisation in the world,”

Growing Pains

Spotify is already no stranger to big data. In September 2013, it moved its giant database of music preferences and playlists to the Hortonworks’ Hadoop cloud platform.

But over the years, the firm has had to deal with a number of security issues. In 2011 for example, it was hit by malware distributed through a third-party ad network. That problem saw malicious advertisements being displayed on the free version of Spotify.

And last year Spotify informed a number of customers to change their passwords following a data breach of its systems.

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