Spotify picks up Echo Nest

Spotify has announced that it will acquire the music intelligence company, The Echo Nest. This deal will allow Spotify to leverage The Echo Nest’s in depth musical understanding and tools for curation to drive music discovery for millions of users around the globe. With Amazon streaming looking as a real and ;possible threat with reports saying that Amazon is in talks with record labels to offer a music streaming service similar to Spotify, Rhapsody or Beats. It is thought that this music streaming would be bundled into Amazon Prime Instant Video to make it more attractive following price rises for the service. In turn, in January Apple said that digital music sales had  dropped for first time since advent of iTunes Store, with execs blaming the new streaming services.  Full-year sales of digital music tracks and albums for 2013 have decreased  for the first time since Apple launched the iTunes Store in 2003, and industry executives blaming streaming music services like Pandora and iTunes Radio for the drop. According to Nielsen SoundScan, sales of digital tracks fell from 1.34 billion units in 2012 to 1.26 billion in 2013, a drop of 5.7 percent, reports Billboard. Digital album sales also fell 0.1 percent to 117.6 million, down from 117.7 million units the year prior. With 63% of the download market compared to second placed AmazonMP3 at 22%, Apple dominates the download sector but  has also fielded its own streaming service in iTunes Radio,