Rumors that Apple was acquiring music-recognition app Shazam surfaced last week, and Apple has now confirmed the deal but without disclosing any details.
Shazam is a widely popular app used worldwide to identify songs, commercials, TV shows, or movies just by listening to short audio clips. It's among the most popular apps of its kind, and it now looks like it agreed to be swallowed by an even more popular company.
Apple Confirms Shazam Acquisition
Last week, news broke out that Apple was about to finalize a deal to buy Shazam. At the time, TechCrunch and Recode reported that their sources pegged the deal at roughly $400 million, a real bargain compared to Shazam's $1 billion valuation back in 2015.
The actual sum Apple paid for Shazam remains undisclosed, as Apple offered no details in this regard. However, the company did confirm the acquisition and said it has big plans for this affair.
In a statement, Apple said that it's thrilled to have Shazam and its team aboard, as Shazam has been among the most popular iOS apps ever since it first hit the App Store. The music-recognition app currently has an impressive user base of hundreds of millions of people worldwide, across various platforms, and it could prove to be a real asset for Apple.
"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," said 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," Shazam added in a statement to The Verge.
What's Next For Apple And Shazam?
Although the estimated $400 million price is a far cry from its $1 billion valuation from 2015, Shazam is still a valuable company, and it could prove useful to Apple in several aspects. The first that comes to mind is making things easier with Apple Music, enabling an even deeper integration and improving the overall experience.
However, Apple could also choose to leverage Shazam to make Siri more powerful and knowledgeable, which would in turn help the company better compete against the likes of Amazon Alexa. Siri already sports Shazam integration, but Apple could take things to the next level and bake it even deeper into iOS, similarly to how Google embedded music recognition into the Pixel.
Beyond Apple Music and Siri, Apple might also be looking to tap Shazam's augmented reality technology, which could help it come up with its own take on Google Lens. Shazam already has an AR platform for brands, as well as visual and audio recognition technology, and Apple could put it to good use. Apple's acquisition of Shazam is still pending regulatory approval, but it's expected to finalize in the next few weeks.
