After numerous rumours, it’s official. Apple has confirmed it has acquired music identification service Shazam for $400 million.
In a statement, Apple said:
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, on the other hand, said in a statement to The Verge:
We are excited to announce that Shazam has entered into an agreement to become part of Apple. Shazam is one of the highest rated apps in the world and loved by hundreds of millions of users and we can’t imagine a better home for Shazam to enable us to continue innovating and delivering magic for our users.
While Shazam was initially valued at $1 billion, but its inability to find a viable business model led Apple to acquire the company at a much lower price. Now, it remains to be seen how Apple would integrate Shazam into its ecosystem, with one very obvious choice being Apple Music making use of Shazam’s music and sound recognition algorithm to improve its own features.
H/T: The Verge