- Music
- 21 Jan 16
The biggest music streaming service in the world just got bigger with the purchase of an Irish music app, in which the former director of Principle Management, Trevor Bowen is an investor
Spotify has confirmed that it has bought the Irish music start-up, Soundwave. The cost of the buy-out has not been disclosed.
On a day when Massive Attack announced their involvement with a new app, the news represents an impressive coup for the Irish tech sector.
Among the investors in the start-up is Trevor Bowen, formerly a director of Principle Management, the company headed by Paul McGuinness, who managed U2, until the company was bought out by Live Nation.
Soundwave is a music analytics app, which tracks the music that people are playing on their mobile phones and where. By tracking an individual’s music choice, it allows them to share their music taste with friends.
In response to media queries, Soundwave CEO, Brendan O’Donnell said that all parties were happy with the deal. “Everyone is smiling,” he stated.
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While the long-term aim is for the app to integrate into Spotify, for the moment it will continue as a stand-along entity.
Spotify is the world’s largest music streaming service. It has approximately 100 million customers, with 25 million using the premium, paying service. Its popularity has not been unconfined, with Taylor Swift (pictured) being among the artists who questioned the amount of royalties per stream being paid to artists.
Soundwave was founded by Brendan O’Driscoll, Craig Watson and Aidan Sliney. Among the well known people who praised the service so far were actor and comedian Stephen Fry – who assisted in the launch of the app – and the co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak. Figures given today suggest that it has been downloaded over 1.5 million times, in a total of 190 countries.