Apple has acquired Shazam for around $400 million

   We are thrilled that Shazam and its talented team will be joining Apple. Since the launch of the App Store, Shazam has consistently ranked as one of the most popular apps for iOS. Today, it’s used by hundreds of millions of people around the world, across multiple platforms. Apple Music and Shazam are a natural fit, sharing a passion for music discovery and delivering great music experiences to our users. We have exciting plans in store, and we look forward to combining with Shazam upon approval of today’s agreement.  

 

Shazam currently generates its revenue from referrals to online services like Apple Music and Spotify, directing consumers to where they can buy specific albums or other content. So far Shazam’s app has been downloaded over 1 billion times. Many analysts say that Shazam should have entered the music streaming or delivery markets a long time ago to create a more stable base to generate revenue, a factor that eventually placed Shazam in the crosshairs of existing music providers like Apple and Spotify. 

It is likely that Apple will seek to integrate Shazam into their Apple Music service in the near future to better compete with the likes of Spotify and build up their presence in the music industry. Both Spotify and Apple Music gets over 1 million clicks per day from Shazam, giving Apple an opportunity to take away referral traffic from Spotify if they made major changes to the service.  

 

One other aspect of Shazam that has Apple’s interest is its AR technology, which currently offers the ability to use a mobile phone to scan “Shazam codes” to see items in AR. This technology could factor into Apple’s VR/AR ambitions, making Shazam more than just a music recognition service. 

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