Apple has acquired the start-up company Asaii, an A&R-boosting music analytics platform, for under $100m. The platform allows undiscovered artists to post their music to be discovered by executives and labels.
The news of the acquisition of the San Francisco based company doesn’t come long after Apple closed the deal on Shazam for $400m and the news that Spotify was allowing undiscovered artists to post to the platform for free.
The analytics platform allows real-time song data to be scored, which allows new artists to be discovered by A&R executives and labels. API’s are also used to power user recommendations and generate playlists by the users preferences and search history.
Apple Insider comments that the Asaii acquisition is expected to uphold Apple Music recommendations and discovery for its users. They are also looking to compete with the new Spotify upcoming artist initiative.