APPLE'S NEW DISCOVERY

Apple has acquired the music analytics company Asaii, which focuses on the discovery of new and emerging artists, and could help the Cuppertino crowd compete with Spotify’s recent indie-friendly approaches to artists.

Axios broke the news.

Asaii touts itself as being able to identify artists months or even a year before they hit charts and can be useful for labels on the hunt for indie artists or in creating marketing plans for their own acts.

Its main product aggregates data from music services and social media. Asaii also produces a music recommendation algorithm, which could help Apple compete with Spotify’s playlists of recommendations based on users’ listening histories.

Startup fund and accelerator The House, the first to invest in the company, in Asaii, confirmed the purchase. The House’s founder Cameron Baradar told Music Ally, “they will have the opportunity to dramatically scale their impact and continue building out their vision for the future of the music industry.”