Apple has acquired Asaii, a music analytics startup which uses internet data to scout up-and-coming artists, for a fee believed to be under $100m.

According to Axios, citing a source, the acquisition will bolster Apple Music’s content recommendations and help the tech giant challenge Spotify’s efforts of working directly with smaller, unsigned artists.

Asaii pulls together data from across the internet from both music services and social media in order to help record labels identify artists before they hit the big time, as well as helping them plan marketing campaigns and live tours.

Both Asaii’s CEO, Sony Theakanath, and co-founder, Austin Chen, have updated their LinkedIn profiles to show they are now working for Apple Music. Last month, Assaii announced that it would be shutting down its service.

The acquisition was confirmed by the founder of The House, a startup fund and accelerator which was first to invest in Asaii. Speaking to Music Ally, Cameron Baradar said: “As the first investors in Asaii, we are incredibly excited by their recent acquisition by Apple where they will have the opportunity to dramatically scale their impact and continue building out their vision for the future of the music industry.”

The purchase is Apple’s second music-related acquisition of the year after the European Commission’s competition authority finally approved its Shazam deal last month.