Warner: The Kick Inside

Warner Music Group (WMG) has announced that it has acquired certain elements of the Songkick business, including the data and discovery app, website and company trademark.

As part of the acquisition, the Songkick app will operate as a standalone brand, overseen by WEA, which is WMG’s artist and label services division, and will likely focus on additional ‘direct to consumer’ offerings such as bundling merch with gig tickets.

The deal doesn’t include the Songkick ticketing platform, currently locked into litigation with transnational promotion beheamouth Live Nation concerning accusations of anti-competitive behaviour in the way the company allegedly pressures the artists it works with as a promoter, manager and venue owner to work with Ticketmaster, which it owns rather than other ticketing providers.

As Songkick is itself a product of a 2015 merger between Crowdsurge and Songkick, that combined Songkick’s concert discovery business with Crowdsurge’s direct-to-consumer ticketing capabilities, this is a kind of reverse merger.

With that potentially tricky part out of the way, lets have some celebratory quotes shall we?

President of WEA Tony Harlow said: “Fans all over the world trust Songkick to help them find events featuring the artists they love. It’s a passionate, highly engaged music community, always on the lookout for new experiences. Bringing together Songkick’s discovery platform and world-class technology with our existing e­commerce expertise and global reach represents a powerful step in strengthening and evolving our direct-to-fan capabilities”.

CEO and co-founder of Songkick Matt Jones added: “Songkick was founded on the promise of improving the live experience for fans and the artists they love. Over the years, we have helped tens of millions find their next great live experience. And today, I’m excited to pass the baton on the discovery service to the great team at WMG, an ideal organization to carry on this mission and to take it in new, innovative directions. And, on behalf of the many artists and fans we’ve served over the last decade, we are committed to continuing our litigation against Live Nation and Ticketmaster independently”.