SPOTIFY ADDS A VISUAL ELEMENT

Spotify is diversifying its revenue, um, streams.

The firm has tapped into its recent billion-dollar loan to acquire CrowdAlbum, a San Francisco-based concert photo aggregator. Spotify defined it as tool “to help artists better understand, activate, and monetize their audiences."

The streaming service will fold CrowdAlbum into its Spotify Fan Insights group, which notifies listeners about upcoming local concerts, and charge its employees with developing products for performers related to touring.

CrowdAlbum, launched in 2013, has more than 1,000 artists using its service, among them Lil Wayne, Diplo and Fall Out Boy. The purchase is in line with Spotify’s other recent buys—Cord Project and Soundwave—aimed at broadening their services for listeners and the music industry.

Charlie Hellman, Vice President of Product at Spotify, said “the CrowdAlbum acquisition is the latest way Spotify is investing in helping artists find and engage their audiences on and off Spotify, especially around the ever important business of touring.”

Fans uses CrowdAlbum to create a “visual history” of a concert experience from heading out to the show to making the drive home, which is then shared on a Pinterest-like board.