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Spotify buys MightyTV to enhance offer to advertisers

By | Published on Tuesday 28 March 2017

Spotify

Spotify has bought itself content recommendation start-up MightyTV, but not because it wants to be either mighty or TV. This is what people round these parts call an ‘acquihire’, and by ‘these parts’ I mean Shoreditch, obviously. Sorry. I mean that what Spotify wants is the MightyTV team, and especially its founder Brian Adams, not the start-up’s TV and film recommendations app, which is closing.

The streaming services are all seeking to develop ever more sophisticated curation and personalisation tools and technologies, and Spotify will be hoping that Adams – who becomes Spotify’s VP Of Technology as part of the deal – and his small team of MightyTV colleagues will help with that challenge.

Spotify’s interest in Adams goes further than just helping the streaming platform get better at recommending tracks for you to listen to though. He previously ran Google’s Doubleclick advertising platform after the web giant bought his earlier start-up Admeld, and Spotify seems to think that the MightyTV team will be able to help it provide better personalisation services as part of its advertising business.

Confirming the acquisition, Spotify’s VP Of Product Jason Richman said: “The content recommendation system MightyTV has built is incredibly aligned with how we think about advertising technology and marketing personalisation. Brian and his team will help us continue to innovate on free monetisation and extend our leadership position in programmatic audio”.

So those were words, weren’t they? I think. Although Spotify’s core business in terms of revenue is in the premium subscriptions space, it still has more users signed up to the free streaming option and it needs to sell more advertising to reduce the losses made by loss-making freemium. Meanwhile in some especially emerging markets free streaming may remain a key part of the Spotify business in the longer term.

“Spotify has built the leading marketplace for fans and creators”, said Adams of his new employer. “It’s an enormous opportunity for me and the team to help create native brand experiences that stay true to a product that millions love”.



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