Apple News: iPhone Maker Buys Music Analytics Firm Asaii For War Against Spotify

Apple (AAPL) has long positioned its Apple Music streaming service as a competitor to Spotify and the iPhone maker made another move on that front to open the week. All signs point to Apple acquiring Asaii, a data analytics firm for music streaming services, Axios reported.

Last month, Asaii announced its service would shut down. The suddenness of the move led to some speculation that an acquisition was near. Though there has not been an official announcement, multiple Asaii employees (including co-founder Sony Theakanath ) updated their LinkedIn profiles to reflect the merger.

Asaii specialized in highly detailed data analytics for artist recommendations, aimed primarily at those in the music industry rather than individual listeners. The Asaii products page advertised services that would generate “machine learning curated lists of talent that fits with your label.” Customers could use Asaii to figure out which artists were on the verge of breaking out based on data scraped from services like Spotify or Soundcloud.

“Our algorithms are able to find the next Justin Bieber, before anyone else,” Asaii touted before the shutdown and acquisition.

Apple could theoretically use Asaii’s tech to improve its artist recommendation features on Apple Music. The paid subscription streaming service has become an increasing point of emphasis for the Silicon Valley-based tech giant. Apple recently became the first U.S. company valued at more than $1 trillion due, in part, to a growing services business on top of its profitable hardware division.

Spotify is currently the leader of the music-streaming market, with 36 percent market share, according to data released by Midia Research in September. That is a solid lead over Apple Music, gained 3 points from the previous year to come in at second place with 19 percent market share.

Unlike Apple Music, Spotify offers a free service with limited features on top of its premium offering. Apple Music charges a monthly fee after a free trial.

Apple also bought music identification service Shazam earlier this year.