Spotify on buying spree: first Sonalytic, now MightyTV

Spotify has been on a buying spree to improve its recommendations to users – which in turn will lead them to press play and generate revenue for the Swedish streaming service.

The latest acquisition is MightyTV. Set up in April 2016, it uses artificial intelligence, machine learning and Tinder-like swipes to personalise recommendations, helping users to "discover and stream the best of movies and TV with a few easy swipes".

MightyTV founder Brian Adams is becoming Spotify’s VP of Technology and will refine the company’s ad and marketing tech. 

“The content recommendation system MightyTV has built is incredibly aligned with how we think about advertising technology and marketing personalisation,” said Jason Richman, VP of Product at Spotify.

“Brian and his team will help us continue to innovate on free monetization and extend our leadership position in programmatic audio.”

Earlier this month, Spotify acquired music data specialist Sonalytic to bolster its technological and data analysis capabilities.

“The Sonalytic team’s advancements in audio feature detection will be used in several ways to advance Spotify’s mission: from improving Spotify’s personalised playlists to matching songs with compositions to improve our publishing data system,” the company said in a statement.

Last year, Spotify struck a deal with Dubset Media Holdings to expand the global footprint of its MixBANK distribution platform. It made it possible for DJs to upload and legally stream original long-form mixes and single track remixes, creating a new revenue stream for artists whose recordings are sampled and the DJs who create the mixes and remixes.