TechCrunch reported last week that Playlists.net may be in talks for an acquisition. Unnamed industry sources said that tech companies and record companies have expressed interest in the site, although there have been no further leads on a frontrunner.
Playlists.net originally launched as ShareMyPlaylists in 2009. It was an early believer in Spotify, jumping on board as a place for members to upload and share their collections. Today, curious listeners can browse the site’s playlists by genre or mood, then stream them all through Spotify. Some collections are curated by Playlists.net, but most are made by members. Playlists.net is essentially a remote control for Spotify, with an emphasis on the playlisting feature of that service, and better social tools (Facebook-inspired) than Spotify has.
Who might the potential buyers be? Curation has become a major component of the streaming music industry, whether it’s done by average users or by famous tastemakers or by the services themselves. It’s possible that a tech firm looking to solidify a hold in the streaming space would want to add that curation capability to its existing music services. Or, as recent news about Shazam and Bop.fm may indicate, there’s also an interest in tools that can interface with multiple streaming services. If Playlists.net could be expanded beyond Spotify, then it has a markedly larger potential audience to reach.
On the music industry side, acquiring a curation platform could help promote a label’s artists and songwriters. It’s also possible that one of the existing streaming services, Spotify or a rival, would want to snap up the popular tool. We’ll keep an eye on who ends up winning Playlist.net’s favor.