You have probably seen some of these state-by state maps showing each state’s most beloved artist, each state’s least beloved music,… they popped up everywhere last week on Facebook and music blogs and I didn’t care very much for any of them. Bonobo as the favorite band in California? Really? I don’t buy it! James Blake for New York? Bruce Springsteen for New Jersey? Wow, I could have said that myself without any survey/massive data studies… Anyway I couldn’t believe how many states were ignoring R. Kelly, it had to be too good to be true.
I had no idea but these maps were brought to us by the company The Echo Nest, a giant music data company, meaning that, when you listen to music on your computer/iPhone, there are actually people who are listening and taking notes, lots of notes. Since the development of Spotify and internet radios, this is a different world, a big brother world.
‘Our music intelligence platform synthesizes billions of data points and transforms it into musical understanding to power smarter music applications for our customers’ says the Echo Nest website. And on March 6th, Spotify announced it was buying the industry’s leading music intelligence company, The Echo Nest, in a $100 million deal, according to Techcrunch.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek declared this will help his company create ‘the best music intelligence platform on the planet’, and strengthen its relationships with ‘brands and partners’.
The tech blog Techcrunch announced the news by declaring that Spotify had gained ‘control of the music DNA company that powers its rivals’, and this means that some rival music streaming services could soon disappear. The Echo Nest has already a wide range of customers in the field (Mog, eMusic, Rhapsody, Rdio,…) but now that Spotify owns the company nobody knows what is going to happen to them when the contracts are expired.
It is a smart move for Spotify according to the experts, it could mean the extinction of other streaming companies soon which wouldn’t be able to use these data anymore. ‘We’ve been fans of The Echo Nest for a really long time and honored to have their talented team join Spotify’, said Spotify CEO Ek, ‘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.’
Right, the best music possible or the most tailored to the market? I hate that some company is deciding for me what music I should listen to, and if everyone is right, Spotify will have the monopole of the field. This is another step toward Brave New World.
