FILE PHOTO: The Spotify logo hangs on the facade of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, U.S., April 3, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
April 12, 2018
By Eric Auchard and Helena Soderpalm
LONDON/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming service, said on Thursday it is to buy Loudr.fm, a San Francisco-based provider of licensing technology to help it to locate songwriters and pay them royalties they are due.
The acquisition will help Spotify find the artists and ensure they get paid for their copyrighted work, an issue which, left unaddressed, leaves it open to lawsuits.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Loudr was set up in 2013 to simplify the process for musicians who publicly perform songs by other artists to identify, track and pay royalties owed to music publishers. These may include cover versions of songs, samples, remixes or medleys.
Loudr will relocate to Spotify’s offices in New York, the company said in a blog post.
Spotify, which listed on the New York Stock Exchange earlier this month, has made at least ten small, usually technology focused acquisitions in recent years to improve its service.
(Reporting by Eric Auchard in London and Helena Soderpalm in Stockholm. Editing by Jane Merriman)
