Spotify buys company that collates gig pics and videos

If you go to any concert these days, you’re likely to be stood among a group of folks taking flickerbook-style photos on their smartphones or, worse still, recording the entire thing to post to YouTube, complete with terribly distorted audio.
Spotify has just bought a San Franscisco-based start-up, which capitalised on that rather irritating behaviour by aggregating the antics for fans around the world.
The music streaming giant now owns the little-known CrowdAlbum platform, which collates the photos and videos from social media posts.
In case you hadn’t noticed, embedding social media posts from the likes of Twitter and Instagram is the internet’s new favourite way of avoiding paying for photography.
In a press release Spotify wrote: “The acquisition of CrowdAlbum will enhance the development of products that help artists understand, activate, and monetize their audiences.”
As part of the acqui-hire, CrowdAlbum employees will join the team at Spotify dedicated to creating products for artists.
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Fan Insights offers data to artists on who is listening to their music, while Concerts works to promote upcoming gigs to fans.