Pandora acquires Techstars-backed music analytics company Next Big Sound

Today Pandora announced that it’s acquired Next Big Sound, a six-year-old analytics service targeting the music industry.

Next Big Sound’s existing service will continue to operate as normal, inside Pandora.

This deal mirrors Apple’s January acquisition of media analytics company Semetric. Pandora, which already offers an Artist Marketing Platform and a native advertising format (Artist Audio Messaging), claims Next Big Sound will help it “become the most powerful and effective marketing and promotions tool for artists, managers, agents, publishers, promoters, labels and brands across the music industry.”

Broadly, this acquisition should strengthen Pandora’s ad product — the lifeblood of the company.

In a blog post, Techstars-backed Next Big Sound vaguely said it will “continue to provide best-in-class analytics and enhance our platform with access to the number one most requested data source: Pandora.” Next Big Sound has raised less than $10 million to date.

Pandora, a public company, declined to share the terms of the deal when reached by yours truly.