The streaming wars are continuing to heat up, and Spotify is doing everything it can to maintain its strong position. While the service continues to pump out new features, the company has also been making a steady stream of acquisitions. Now, it’s adding another to the list.
Spotify announced today that it has acquired CrowdAlbum, a service that aggregates photos and videos from artists’ performances. Exactly what the company has planned for its new acquisition isn’t crystal clear, but it says it will help to develop products that allow artists to “understand, activate, and monetize their audiences.”
CrowdAlbum, which launched in 2013, essentially aims to help artists create visual histories of tours. While the company isn’t exactly a household name, it has already worked with over 1,000 artist and venues throughout the U.S., including Diplo, Death Cab for Cutie, Lil Wayne, and Fallout Boy. The company will be joining the same team at Spotify that recently introduced the Spotify Fan Insights and Concerts features.
“We’re working every day to find ways to tighten the connection between artists and their fans,” said Spotify’s vice president of product, Charlie Hellma. “The CrowdAlbum acquisition is the latest way Spotify is investing in helping artists find and engage their audiences on and off Spotify, especially around the ever important business of touring.”
Earlier this year, Spotify acquired Soundwave and Cord Project, makers of a social music discovery and sharing app, and a voice messaging platform, respectively. The reason for acquiring the former seems fairly obvious, and Spotify said at the time that the latter would “build a new product group that will focus on creating compelling content experiences.”
What Spotify hasn’t acquired recently is a security firm, and the company might want to look into that. Last week reports surfaced that the firm had been breached, with users’ information being posted on the Web. The company denied this, but that was also the company’s response to a similar confirmed incident in February of this year.
