Spotify expands its AI arsenal for better music recommendations
This one doesn't sound like it will be ad-focused.
Spotify's editorial selection and music discovery process are hard to beat (ahem, Google Play Music) and it might get a little better with the company's latest acquisition. The music streaming service has just picked up Niland, a Paris-based machine learning startup that focuses on music search and recommendations. "The team from Niland will join our New York office and help Spotify continue innovating and improving our recommendation and personalization technologies resulting in more music discovery, which benefits both fans and artists," a press release says.
"The best part of our journey was hearing from our clients how they were using Niland API to create innovative products that help musicians cut through the noise," Niland writes.
Spotify has absorbed AI-minded companies in the past, and its Discover Weekly playlists have proven pretty popular with listeners. There's a distinct chance that this could end up making its recommendations better than they currently are, which would be a boon for everyone involved. Users get relevant music to listen to which leads to artists earning more royalties and Spotify getting a cut of the streaming fees. It's probably one of the more straightforward benefit paths in tech, to be honest.
