Apple has acquired Semetric, a London-based music analytics company, the Wall Street Journal reports. The analytics service produced by the company tracks music sales, illegal downloads, and social networking interactions, according to a person familiar with the acquisition.
An Apple attorney also reportedly joined Semitic’s board in October. An Apple spokesman provided the generic response that “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plan,” however it seems likely that the acquisition is directly related to the rumored impending launch of a new music streaming service by Apple.
Notably, Semitic’s Musicmetric service has been used with competing streaming services such as Spotify to help artists track the music listening habits of their fans, and the report notes that this acquisition may be an effort by Apple to position its streaming service as artist-friendly.
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