Analytics

Internet radio service Pandora this week announced it has acquired Next Big Sound, a leading music analytics provider, as it seeks to bolster its big data chops amid growing competition among music streaming services for listeners and for exclusive artist arrangements. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Next Big Sound, which tracks streams as well as social media activity around music, is widely used by record labels, marketers and others in the industry looking for insights into popular artists and their fans. The company also provides social media data to Billboard, which uses the data to compile its Social 50 chart.

Pandora said it plans to use Next Big Sound’s data to complement its Artists Marketing Platform, a dashboard and suite of tools Pandora introduced last year to help artists pick singles, plan tour dates and reach out to fans using data on the number of listeners their music is attracting on the service, the number of streams and where those streams originate.

The deal is the latest in a series of similar moves by music streaming services as the music industry tries to come to grips with the huge new troves of data on listeners and listening habits generated by streaming.

In January, Apple acquired U.K. startup Semetric, the parent company of music analytics provider Musicmetric, as Apple prepares to launch a revamped version of the Beats Music on-demand streaming service later this year. That deal followed on the heels of Spotify’s acquisition of Echo Nest last year, as well as Beat’s own, pre-Apple acquisition of Topspin.

Even non-music companies have joined the rush into music analytics, such as Tribune Media Services, which bought music metadata provider Gracenote from Sony in December for $170 million.

The moves come as artists and songwriters grow increasingly vocal in their criticism of music streaming services over the paltry performance royalties most receive despite rapid growth in streaming among consumers. The services hope to assuage some of that criticism by providing artists with new tools to help build and target their fan bases, understand the impact of promotional events, such as TV appearances, press interviews and the timing of new releases, and gain insight into the relationship between social media activity and earnings.

“Next Big Sound shares our passion for music and respect for those who make it. I’m incredibly excited to unleash the combined potential of our two companies and have the Next Big Sound team join us,” Pandora CEO Brian McAndrews said in a statement announcing the deal.

The enhanced focus on analytics also comes as competition heats up among streaming services for exclusive access to artists’ music. Eight months after pulling her catalog from Spotify, best-selling artist Taylor Swift made a deal to stream her music on Tidal, the service recently acquired by artist and music mogul Jay Z. Recent reports, however, say Swift may soon leave Tidal for an exclusive deal with Apple’s Beats Music.

For both artists and streaming services alike, advanced analytics will be crucial to understanding whether, when and with whom to negotiate exclusive deals.