Today we are excited to announce that Beats Music has acquired Topspin. Beats Music has made it a priority to empower artists within their recently launched streaming service, and they have acquired ArtistLink to continue powering the images, bios, and commerce offers on their artist profile pages. Read Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers (formerly Topspin’s CEO) blog post on the acquisition. 

Topspin’s earliest and most lasting mission has been to help artists make a living by connecting them with their fans and helping them make money. When we started in 2007, music fans were primarily downloading digital files and moving them manually into their iPods. The world of downloads proved valuable in acquiring fan emails for free and bundling digital albums with tickets, merchandise, or any type of direct-to-fan offer. In the 7 years since, fans have moved away from buying individual downloads and moved into accessing the world’s music from a variety of streaming services. As the era of streaming matures, new ways to connect artists and fans will evolve inside these services, and Beats Music now has a proven platform and team in Topspin’s ArtistLink to lead the industry in empowering artists in their service.

For existing Topspin customers, there will be no immediate change. We will continue to operate both ArtistLink and the Topspin Platform without any interruption to either products’ service. As Beats Music integrates ArtistLink into their service, both Topspin and Beats Music will look for a strategic partner to operate and run the popular email and commerce services in the Topspin Platform. We have a FAQ with more detail.

You can continue to use ArtistLink to manage your presence on your MTV artist page or publish your merchandise offers into Spotify. Both of these integrations will continue to operate as-is after Beats Music acquires ArtistLink. There will also be no changes to ArtistLink’s Promo Exchange or advertising service.

Topspin is proud and honored to be joining the Beats Music team. We are excited to shepherd in the next evolution of direct-to-fan for artists as members of the Beats Music team and have lots of great developments to share with you in the days and weeks ahead.