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Warner buys Playlists.net

By | Published on Friday 17 October 2014

Playlists.net

Following rumours that a deal was imminent back in July, UK-based playlisting-frenzy-platform Playlists.net has been bought by the artist and label services division of mini-major Warner Music, which seems to be using the WEA brand these days.

Playlists.net, originally known as ShareMyPlaylists, is a leading hub for Spotify playlists which quickly capitalised on the rising trend of pundits and punters making and sharing lists of tunes compiled on the streaming platform. Developed to date with relatively modest private funding (£600,000 according to TechCruch), Playlists.net says it now has one million users per month, which results in 4.5 million monthly “listening sessions” and a billion Spotify streams per year.

A major label alliance has obvious benefits for the start-up, other than just funding, though could also pose some challenges, in terms of artists and labels outside the Warner group becoming hesitant of sharing playlists via the platform. Though Playlists.net founder Kieron Donoghue is keen to stress the company will continue to operate as an independent vehicle under its new owners.

Confirming the deal, Donoghue said in a statement: “We were approached by WEA earlier in the year to discuss ways in which we could collaborate and it became apparent that there was much to be gained by us joining forces. What’s really exciting is that WEA have committed to support Playlists.net as an independent platform, invest in its future and grow the team to take advantage of new opportunities in the streaming ecosystem. There is a huge appetite in WEA to further embrace streaming, develop new concepts and really innovate in this growing sector”.



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