Apple has acquired San Francisco-based music analytics startup Asaii which uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to help clients like record labels find the next Justin Bieber. Apple will reportedly use their technology to bolster Apple Music recommendations to users and better compete with Spotify’s efforts to work directly with smaller artist.
Apple will pay $300 million in cash for parts of its supplier Dialog Semiconductor’s business and another $300 million in purchase obligations over the next three years.
Nearly a year ago, Apple purchased Spektral. The company develops software that allows photographers to add people from one digital scene to another.
In the works since at least 2014, the all-stock transaction will see the ad-supported Pandora service, as well as the company’s Plus and Premium subscriptions, continue unabated without changing pricing.
The regulators have concluded that the proposed acquisition of Shazam by Apple would not reduce choice for users of streaming music services in Europe, like Sweden-headquartered Spotify.
EU’s antitrust regulators should approve Apple’s acquisition of the British music identification service on September 18.
Logitech and Blue Microphones are joining teams to extend their product portfolios, which will especially benefit Logitech which lacks products like cool mics in it offering.
Apple has reportedly reached an interesting deal with makers of the popular cross-platform password manager 1Password that will see it deploy the app to all 123,000 employees.
Increasing its stake in EMI Music Publishing to 90%, Sony just became the world’s largest music publisher while giving EMI a value of around $4.75 billion, including debt, or more than double its value in 2011.
Apple’s proposed acquisition of British music discovery app Shazam has reportedly sparked an in-depth antitrust investigation in Europe through September 4 because the European Commission is concerned the deal might give the iPhone maker an unfair advantage in poaching users from its rivals, like Spotify.
Apple has signed an agreement to acquire the Texture service which gives users unlimited access to their favorite digital magazines for one low monthly subscription fee.
The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it is going to “assess the acquisition of Shazam by Apple.”
