Spotify are expanding and they’re latest venture looks to take them into the world of music licensing, probably a good idea for the streamers.

Spotify have just announced the acquisition of Loudr, a music licensing company whose technology has been based around identifying, crediting and paying artists and music publishers. Considering Spotify’s sometimes shaky encounters with music licensing it makes sense that they would start making moves to cover themselves and protect artists/publishers internally.

Loudr launched in 2013 and built a service that was capable of identifying and tracking royalties to be used in digital music services and aggregators to ensure the correct party received their due royalties. Loudr’s team of publishing specialists and technologists will join Spotify in their New York offices from their own headquarters in San Francisco.

With the purchase Loudr’s efforts will be shifted more towards Spotify’s efforts for creating a “transparent and efficient” system for songwriters and rights-holders getting paid on digital services. They will continue to work with their publishing and aggregator partners to provide “select services”.

Spotify’s global head of publishing, Adam Parness said: “What Loudr has built is more than just a smart and easy way for artists to obtain mechanical licenses; it’s true music industry innovation. The Loudr team perfectly complements Spotify’s music publishing operation and, together, we believe we can continue to foster a more open, streamlined, and modern music publishing landscape.”