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Business News Deals Digital
Apple buys music analytics firm Semetric
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 21 January 2015
Apple has acquired Semetric, the London-based business behind music analytics service Musicmetric, according to Music Ally.
Music Ally notes that the firm’s registered address at Companies House was changed earlier this month to be the same as that of Apple UK, while the IT giant’s VP of Corporate Law in the US became a director back in October. Asked about the developments, Apple unhelpfully (if predictably) stated: “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plan”.
Although it had a number of ventures, the pro version of Musicmetric, used by labels to monitor social, sales, streaming and other online activity related to their artists, was the core Semetric business. It’s assumed that Apple will use that technology and know-how to boost the analytics side of its in-development all-new iTunes/Beats digital music extravaganza. Whether the platform-agnostic analytics service will also continue long-term isn’t clear.
Though rival digital service providers which have made use of Musicmetric’s platform, like Spotify, will presumably look elsewhere for that kind of service once the Apple acquisition is solidified, as Spotify’s rivals did after it bought data firm Echonest. Which would be good news for Musicmetric’s chief rival Next Big Sound.