Warner Music Group has snapped up selected assets from live music platform Songkick. Songkick’s concert discovery app and website, as well as the company trademark, will transfer to the music major, although the ticketing parts of the business will remain with the current owners.

The move means an effective reversal of the 2015 Songkick-Crowdsurge merger that brought together the former’s concert discovery business with the latter’s direct-to-consumer ticketing capabilities. Warner owner Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries had already invested in Songkick in a 2016 funding round.

As part of the acquisition, some Songkick employees involved in running the concert discovery app, including some in the UK, will move across to WMG. The Songkick app will operate as a standalone brand, overseen by WEA, WMG's artist and label services division, which includes sales, distribution, streaming account management and playlisting, analytics, insight, artist websites and webstores, VIP experiences, fan clubs, and merchandising. The move expands WMG's D2C offerings and will likely lead to additional offerings for Songkick users, such as ticketing-merch bundles.

Tony Harlow, president of WEA, 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."

Matt Jones, CEO and co-founder of Songkick, said: “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.”

As the acquisition excludes Songkick’s ticketing business, WMG will not be involved in that pending litigation.

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