Warner Music Group announced Friday that it has acquired selected assets from live-music platform Songkick. The deal includes the company’s concert-discovery app and website as well as the Songkick trademark; a number of Songkick employees involved in running the app will move to WMG as well. According to a release, the service attracts 15 million users per month.
The acquisition does not include Songkick’s ticketing business, formerly known as Crowdsurge, and its pending litigation against Ticketmaster and Live Nation, which includes allegations of antitrust violations and anticompetitive behavior.
Access Industries, the company owned by Warner Music owner Len Blavatnik, has invested over $30 million in Songkick, including $15 million in 2016.
The Songkick concert discovery app will now operate as a standalone brand, overseen by WEA, WMG’s artist and label services division, which includes sales, distribution, streaming account management and playlisting, analytics, insight, artist websites and webstores, VIP experiences, fan clubs, and merchandising, according to the release. The move expands WMG’s growing network of direct-to-fan destinations and will lead to additional offerings for Songkick users.
WEA president Tony Harlow said: “Bringing together Songkick’s discovery platform and world-class technology with our existing ecommerce expertise and global reach represents a powerful step in strengthening and evolving our direct-to-fan capabilities.”
Matt Jones, CEO and Co-Founder of Songkick, said: “Songkick was founded on the promise of improving the live experience for fans and the artists they love. And today, I’m excited to pass the baton on the discovery service to the great team at WMG, an ideal organization to carry on this mission and to take it in new, innovative directions. And, on behalf of the many artists and fans we’ve served over the last decade, we are committed to continuing our litigation against Live Nation and Ticketmaster independently.”
