Beatport acquires social music startup Listn

Beatport, the world’s largest electronic digital music store, has announced the acquisition of LA-based startup Listn.

Listn’s key objective was to allow consumers to connect to their friends through music, enabling cross-platform sharing.

Listn users can add their Spotify, Rdio, YouTube, SoundCloud login details (amongst others) and are then able to share music with friends, who can listen to it no matter what service they are signed in with (provided the track is available in its catalogue, obviously).

The company raised half a million dollars in Seed funding to date and this is essentially an aquihire as Listn's app will be pulled from the App Store on October the 20th.

In a blog post, the company remarks that the app will continue to operate for those who have already downloaded it, but it’s unclear for how long and - without further support - it’s bound to become pretty buggy in a matter of months as Apple releases new versions of iOS.

As far as the reason for the acquisition the cross-platform technology Listn developed is certainly interesting but there is not a whole lot to gain from it for Beatport. The most appealing aspect is perhaps the attention Listn put into creating a well-rounded social environment that encouraged interaction between listeners.

Beatport is still very much seen as a “store” and bringing in a team with expertise in the social side of the equation could be a positive move for the company.


(Andrea Leonelli)