Apple Acquires Media Analytics Company Semetric Ahead of Beats Music Relaunch

MacRumors · Jan 21, 2015

Apple has acquired British media analytics company Semetric and will look to roll in the company's Musicmetric tracking service into its relaunch of Beats Music later this year, reports The Guardian.

In documents filed with Companies House earlier in January, Semetric's registered address was changed to 100 New Bridge Street in London - the office of law firm Baker & McKenzie, which is also the registered address of Apple Europe Limited.

"Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plan," said Apple in a statement provided to the Guardian, although Semetric declined to comment.

First launched in 2008, Musicmetric is known for its expansive tracking of music sales, downloads, and social networking statistics for artists and labels. In 2013, the startup also struck a deal with streaming service Spotify to integrate its data into Musicmetric's profiles for users.

Last year, it was reported that Apple would be revamping the Beats Music streaming service for 2015, and was even said to be pushing for an industry-leading $5 monthly subscription cost. Apple could look to offer musicians and music labels a way to track their iTunes and social networking statistics with Musicmetric, although both companies have yet to specify their plans.

Article Link: Apple Acquires Media Analytics Company Semetric Ahead of Beats Music Relaunch

SchneiderMan · Jan 21, 2015

I am Lorde, ya ya ya.

timtempest · Jan 21, 2015

Yay

As a seller in iTunes this is wonderful news. At the moment I only have access to total sales information. I've basically no idea where those sales come from or which of my promotional methods are successful.

Good stuff.

On the down side although services like spotify are great for consumers I only make $0.0054 to $0.0066 per play from Spotify (after CDBaby takes a small slice), or $0.0021 from Rdio, or $0.01050000 from Deezer. It takes some time to collect enough revenue to be able to record new tracks, or indeed feel motivated to do so.

Tim

Jsameds · Jan 21, 2015

Lordi > Lorde

maflynn · Jan 21, 2015

Seems to be a natural fit with the direction where apple wants to be heading in.

Siderealx · Jan 21, 2015

This will officially welcome us to a world where record labels make decisions entirely based on stats. It's the stock market equivalant of the music business. RIP.

maflynn · Jan 21, 2015

Siderealx said:
This will officially welcome us to a world where record labels make decisions entirely based on stats. It's the stock market equivalant of the music business. RIP.

And the music business never used statistics before.

johnnyturbouk · Jan 21, 2015

maflynn said:
And the music business never used statistics before.

lol, well said.

thekeyring · Jan 21, 2015

Really looking forward to what they do with music. It was the only part of the company they didn't really mention last year (other than the U2 giveaway). No iPod updates. No iTunes Radio expansion.

Bring on the Apple Watch / Beats Music event invite!

HobeSoundDarryl · Jan 21, 2015

timtempest said:
On the down side although services like spotify are great for consumers I only make $0.0054 to $0.0066 per play from Spotify (after CDBaby takes a small slice), or $0.0021 from Rdio, or $0.01050000 from Deezer. It takes some time to collect enough revenue to be able to record new tracks, or indeed feel motivated to do so.

Apple is apparently working hard to get the industry standard monthly fee down to $5/month. So help

is apparently on the way.

Or should I say: Apple will make up for the added zeros after the decimal point but before any numbers that actually do something for artists with VOLUME.

I mean, Apple (streaming) iRadio is already available, free and everyone is using it all the time, right? So this Beats for $5 subscription should absolutely roar.

Tiger8 · Jan 21, 2015

Siderealx said:
This will officially welcome us to a world where record labels make decisions entirely based on stats. It's the stock market equivalant of the music business. RIP.

It's not like music business has ever been about quality.

maflynn said:
And the music business never used statistics before.

Thank you! They do absolutely. Radio play is something like 75% of billboard charts, and usually songs are sampled with a select group before they go mainstream.

businezguy · Jan 21, 2015

HobeSoundDarryl said:
Apple is apparently working hard to get the industry standard monthly fee down to $5/month. So help is apparently on the way.

Or should I say: Apple will make up for the added zeros after the decimal point but before any numbers that actually do something for artists with VOLUME. I mean, Apple (streaming) iRadio is already available, free and everyone is using it all the time, right? So this Beats for $5 subscription should absolutely roar.

You may very well be right, but I suspect this service will allow customers to play individual songs and even download them for use offline. If they have available all of the popular artists, this could be a good value for consumers. Competition is always welcome.

Keirasplace · Jan 21, 2015

maflynn said:
And the music business never used statistics before.

The music biz has been all about stats since well forever. Anyone who thinks it was somehow "more pure" in the past, should read a bit about that... The whole payola scandal is in particular instructive. The funny thing is that although that officially stopped... It didn't really... They just became more subtle about it.

rekhyt · Jan 21, 2015

timtempest said:
As a seller in iTunes this is wonderful news. At the moment I only have access to total sales information. I've basically no idea where those sales come from or which of my promotional methods are successful.

Good stuff.

On the down side although services like spotify are great for consumers I only make $0.0054 to $0.0066 per play from Spotify (after CDBaby takes a small slice), or $0.0021 from Rdio, or $0.01050000 from Deezer. It takes some time to collect enough revenue to be able to record new tracks, or indeed feel motivated to do so.

Tim

(Disclosure: Non-artist myself.)

Hm. Was under the impression that such statistics would be readily available already. I understand that Apple is a non-data company (which is arguably a good thing, in contrast to Google), but I thought for sales like iTunes and the App Store, such basic tracking mechanisms would be available.

Moving onto Spotify: thoughts on Spotify? A force for evil (Taylor Swift-esque point of view), or a revolution in the music industry?

I personally love Spotify, but would love to hear from an actual artist's view (as opposed to publishers wanting to extract more money (but not giving this increase to the artists themselves) from streaming services).

technosix · Jan 21, 2015

It's good to see Apple getting serious about music once again. As iTunes revenue begins to fade, the financial loss grabs Apple's attention faster than any other kind of customer feedback.

Time for Apple to back up their words with action and dust off their creative thinking tools. It would be very refreshing to see them demonstrate a burst of innovation and move to the front again.

TallManNY · Jan 21, 2015

timtempest said:
As a seller in iTunes this is wonderful news. At the moment I only have access to total sales information. I've basically no idea where those sales come from or which of my promotional methods are successful.

Good stuff.

On the down side although services like spotify are great for consumers I only make $0.0054 to $0.0066 per play from Spotify (after CDBaby takes a small slice), or $0.0021 from Rdio, or $0.01050000 from Deezer. It takes some time to collect enough revenue to be able to record new tracks, or indeed feel motivated to do so.

Tim

Yes, that is the problem with those streaming services. The payments are too small. The only way Apple can make reasonable payments charging $5 per month, is if they can basically just get all of their users to sign up. I've never subscribed to a streaming service, but for $5 a month I might. Especially if it was nicely integrated. But I'd also want to be sure I wasn't supporting a company who is squeezing the artists too hard. I generally buy albums on iTunes and I feel like the artist gets a good enough cut off that.

freediverx · Jan 21, 2015

SchneiderMan said:
I am Lorde, ya ya ya.

----------

Siderealx said:
This will officially welcome us to a world where record labels make decisions entirely based on stats. It's the stock market equivalant of the music business. RIP.

Right, because so far the record labels have promoted and rewarded musicians based on talent and popularity.

pickaxe · Jan 21, 2015

List of things Apple is planning that I don't care about:
- Beats Music integration
- Apple Watch
- Apple Watch OS
- iPad Pro

Things that I'm interested in but Apple doesn't seem interested in:
- OS X refinement
- iOS refinement
- iCloud that works
- Intuitive graphical user interfaces
- A desktop Mac without laptop internals that doesn't cost 2500$+
- Better hardware quality control
- iTunes overhaul
- New iPods that aren't an iPhone minus the radio
- First-party Prosumer apps
- ...

freediverx · Jan 21, 2015

I find the Beats Music app's interface vastly superior to anything Apple has done with music so far. From its catalog search capability, to the ease of selecting/deselecting which songs I want downloaded for offline listening, easy toggling between list and player views, intuitive and efficient radial scrubber control, and the comprehensive selection of artists, albums, and songs. I also consider the curated, subscribable playlists a nice way to discover new music.

I just hope Apple doesn't screw it up in a misguided attempt to a) harmonize it with the iTunes UI or b) nag people to purchase songs they're already paying to stream.

----------

businezguy said:
I suspect this service will allow customers to play individual songs and even download them for use offline. If they have available all of the popular artists, this could be a good value for consumers. Competition is always welcome.

You just described how Beats Music already works. The question is whether Apple will successfully integrate Beats without screwing up what made it popular in the first place.

heeloliver · Jan 21, 2015

Cool. Can't wait to see what's coming out of Apple's revamped music program.

timtempest · Jan 21, 2015

rekhyt said:
(Disclosure: Non-artist myself.)

Hm. Was under the impression that such statistics would be readily available already. I understand that Apple is a non-data company (which is arguably a good thing, in contrast to Google), but I thought for sales like iTunes and the App Store, such basic tracking mechanisms would be available.

Moving onto Spotify: thoughts on Spotify? A force for evil (Taylor Swift-esque point of view), or a revolution in the music industry?

I personally love Spotify, but would love to hear from an actual artist's view (as opposed to publishers wanting to extract more money (but not giving this increase to the artists themselves) from streaming services).

I make hardly anything via Spotify, and I certainly can't generate Taylor Swift like volumes. Youtube is a better streaming resource financially as it links to my own store and iTunes for sales, plus ad revenue. Spotify makes a big show of the total amount it pays to artists, but chooses to avoid disclosing individual amounts.

I can't connect with my audience through iTunes to build any kind or relationship. Bing (or whatever it was called), looked promising on launch and i quickly had hundreds of followers there as it was a one click Like to follow me. Apple did nothing to develop that sadly. I think they wanted it to be like Facebook, but that missed the point. I sell children's songs and it was great (rewarding and motivating) to get messages from kids who liked our music.

Tim

janderson0719 · Jan 21, 2015

pickaxe said:
List of things Apple is planning that I don't care about:
- Beats Music integration
- Apple Watch
- Apple Watch OS
- iPad Pro

Things that I'm interested in but Apple doesn't seem interested in:
- OS X refinement
- iOS refinement
- iCloud that works
- Intuitive graphical user interfaces
- A desktop Mac without laptop internals that doesn't cost 2500$+
- Better hardware quality control
- iTunes overhaul
- New iPods that aren't an iPhone minus the radio
- First-party Prosumer apps
- ...

But, I want an Apple Watch.

WardC · Jan 21, 2015

It looks like the Lorde IS Risen!

Saucesome2000 · Jan 21, 2015

freediverx said:
Image

----------

Right, because so far the record labels have promoted and rewarded musicians based on talent and popularity.

To be fair, popularity is a stat.

Rettun1 · Jan 21, 2015

pickaxe said:
List of things Apple is planning that I don't care about:
- Beats Music integration
- Apple Watch
- Apple Watch OS
- iPad Pro

Things that I'm interested in but Apple doesn't seem interested in:
- OS X refinement
- iOS refinement
- iCloud that works
- Intuitive graphical user interfaces
- A desktop Mac without laptop internals that doesn't cost 2500$+
- Better hardware quality control
- iTunes overhaul
- New iPods that aren't an iPhone minus the radio
- First-party Prosumer apps
- ...

Lol calm down.

Apple Acquires Media Analytics Company Semetric Ahead of Beats Music Relaunch

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