Companies make all sorts of acquisitions, insightful or random. The acquisition of Echo Nest certainly isn't the reason for "the impact of Spotify on our culture". I assure you, Spotify's success was in its licensing a very large selection of music to stream. Everything else is marginal.
Not true at all. Do you think Facebook would be as big without their feed, or YouTube as big without recommended videos or their front page?
Recommendations and turning that into useful products (like auto generated playlists, mood playlists, upcoming talent, etc) are a huge draw to Spotify and creates a high bar for new competitors (including Apple Music).
