Update: TechCrunch reports Apple didn’t acquire Asaii, but rather, hired its founders.
Apple has acquired Asaii, a music analytics company which claims to be able to identify future hit artists ten weeks before they chart.
The company announced in September that it would be shutting down, but didn’t give any explanation at the time – though an acquisition was suspected …
The news was broken by Axios, who notes that its source has been confirmed by LinkedIn profiles, including that of founder Sony Theakanath, which now lists his employer as ‘Apple Music at Apple.’
Axios suggests that it may help Apple’s streaming music service sign artists directly.
Music Ally was also able to confirm the acquisition.
The most obvious reason for Apple’s interest is to improve Apple Music’s For You recommendations.
“As the first investors in Asaii, we are incredibly excited by their recent acquisition by Apple where they will have the opportunity to dramatically scale their impact and continue building out their vision for the future of the music industry,” Cameron Baradar, founder of The House, told Music Ally.
But Music Ally backs the Axios report that there is more to it.
Spotify is already working directly with independent artists without a label, so it wouldn’t be surprising if Apple Music did the same.
Theakanath claimed that it could “identify up and coming artists 10 weeks before they hit the charts” by analysing the data from streaming services including Spotify and SoundCloud, with around a 70-30 rate of hits to misses – i.e. it predicted hits 70% of the time.
“A hit is considered someone you can sign and make a profit out of in some way, or they jump onto a major playlist in some way,” he said then.
