Rhapsody acquires startups behind music-focused apps SoundTracking and Exfm

The pioneering music streaming service provider Rhapsody has just acquired not one, but two music-focused startups, as reported by The Next Web. One of these is Schematic Labs, the team behind the popular Instagram-like music-sharing app SoundTracking. In its announcement post, the startup notes that SoundTracking will remain available, with the added power of Rhapsody's digital music library:

Rest assured we will continue to offer the ability to share the soundtrack to your life. Meanwhile, we’re already busy cooking up exciting new features to take advantage of Rhapsody’s 30-million track global streaming catalog, so stay tuned for future exciting integration opportunities of SoundTracking within Rhapsody!

The other startup newly acquired by Rhapsody is Exfm. Originally called Extension.fm, Exfm specializes in music discovery based on listening history across various sites. Beset with financial, technical and legal difficulties, Exfm scaled back and shut down its apps on iOS and other supported platforms early this year. But having just been acquired by Rhapsody, it appears to be happily back on track. As noted by Exfm on its homepage:

For the next few months, we will be heads down working. When we resurface, we are sure you will love what we have built. We've got some pretty amazing plans for iPhone, Android, Windows Phone and the Web. We may have been doing this for a while, but we feel like we are just getting started. We hope you continue with us on this journey, and a heartfelt thank you for everything.

I guess we can expect to see Exfm back on the App Store soon. As for SoundTracking, it continues to be available on the App Store for free. It has actually just been updated with several improvements, including new four-tabbed notifications, new song bar design and animations, and music-related hashtag suggestions. Just a week ago, Rhapsody announced that it had topped 2 million paying subscribers, thanks in no small part to its recently forged partnership with the so-called “Uncarrier” T-Mobile on Unradio. See also: Apple welcomes Beats Music and Beats Electronics to the "family," Google Acquires Curation-Focused Music Streaming Service Songza, and Rdio Now Has Music Discovery Service TastemakerX To Take On Spotify's The Echo Nest.