Spotify Just Bought A Company That Will Deliver A Huge Blow To Its Rivals

Thanks to the deal, Spotify will be able to improve its music discovery tools.

But this is bad news for some of Spotify's competitors.

The Echo Nest uses machine learning technology to leverage massive amounts of data about music, and provide that information to Spotify rivals like Rdio, Nokia, and MTV. The Echo Nest can analyze who you are as a music fan, and then deliver song recommendations to you and even predict what type of music you're going to listen to.

It's unclear if Spotify's purchase of The Echo Nest means Rdio and other services will have to stop using it.

"We've been fans of The Echo Nest for a really long time and honoured to have their talented team join Spotify," Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said in a press release. "At Spotify, we want to get people to listen to more music. We are hyper focused on creating the best user experience and it starts with building the best music intelligence platform on the planet. With The Echo Nest joining Spotify, we will make a big leap forward in our quest to play you the best music possible."

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.