Apple has acquired music analytics startup Asaii, according to a report by Axios. Citing unnamed sources, the deal was reportedly worth less than $100 million, and was presumably done as part of Apple’s attempt to bolster its content recommendations to end users as well as possibly helping Apple to identify smaller artists to work with.
Asaii has been pioneering efforts to use machine learning that it claims can help discover new, up-and-coming artists weeks before they break out on the top charts, as well as viewing trends of all artists to identify areas where promotional and marketing campaigns are most successful. Asaii was founded two years ago by Sony Theakanath, Austin Chen, and Chris Zhang, who between them have previously worked at Apple, Facebook, Uber, Salesforce, and Yelp, however according to their LinkedIn profiles, all three are now part of the Apple Music team.
[via MacRumors]
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