Spotify just acquired The Echo Nest, a music intelligence service.
Thanks to the deal, Spotify will be able to improve its music discovery tools.
“We've been fans of The Echo Nest for a really long time and honoured to have their talented team join Spotify,” Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said in a press release. “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.”
But this is bad news for some of Spotify's competitors.
The Echo Nest uses machine learning technology to leverage massive amounts of data about music, and provide that information to Spotify rivals like Rdio, Nokia, and MTV. The Echo Nest can analyze who you are as a music fan, and then deliver song recommendations to you and even predict what type of music you're going to listen to.
Luckily for Spotify's competitors, the acquisition doesn't mean other companies will have to stop using The Echo Nest.
"As for competitors, in the few cases where The Echo Nest does work with direct competitors to Spotify we will work with their team to understand these relationships and determine the next business steps," a Spotify spokesperson told Business Insider via email.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.