Spotify has just acquired the new music-discovery startup called Tunigo. You may or may not have heard of them, but Tunigo have a popular Spotify app that generates playlists based on a users mood and activity. Following the acquisition, Spotify could now integrate the functionality into their native app.
Usually with these buyouts of smaller start-ups, it sees the bigger company consume them for patent or technologies, but all of Tunigo’s employees will reportedly go to work in Spotify’s Stockholm and New York offices, with the Tunigo service itself remaining operational for now.
The move couldn’t come at a better time for Spotify, with increasing competition from the likes of Apple (with the rumoured iRadio), Rdio, and the recently launched Twitter Music (created using the We Are Hunted technology), this keeps the company on the forefront of adding new features to its streaming services.
Music discovery is something I have always struggled with when using both Spotify and Rdio. With a huge catalogue of music that both these services offer, it is often difficult to find music I would like to hear as it gets lost in the noise, and I often find myself relying on what is popular amongst other users of Rdio and Spotify to fuel my music listening needs, rather than what I like. The music discovery that Twitter Music offers takes a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t quite go all the way in my opinion. However, with the acquisition of Tunigo, hopefully Spotify will introduce some awesome music discovery features that will not only reveal music I want to listen to, but also what mood I am currently in.
Do you use Spotify or Rdio? Do you share the same concerns with the service as I do, or are you happy how it is? Drop us a comment below.