Apple finally completed its acquisition of Shazam for $400 million and then promised that it will soon remove all ads from the song identification app.
Apple's definite plans for Shazam remain unclear. However, the general expectation is that the app will be integrated in some form into Apple Music to further expand the music streaming service's capabilities.
Apple-Shazam Deal Finally Goes Through
Late last year, it was reported that Apple will be buying Shazam for $400 million. Shazam is one of the most popular apps in the world, downloaded more than 1 billion times and used to identify songs that it hears more than 20 million times daily. It was also one of the first apps available when Apple launched its App Store.
The acquisition faced a roadblock in April, though, when the European Commission investigated the deal on concerns that Apple will use Shazam's data to target users on rival music streaming services to transfer to Apple Music.
Apple has since received approval for its purchase of Shazam, with the company announcing the completion of the acquisition through a press release.
"With a shared love of music and innovation, we are thrilled to bring our teams together to provide users even more great ways to discover, experience and enjoy music," said Apple Music VP Oliver Schusser in a statement.
In the same press release, Apple revealed that Shazam will soon improve its user experience by becoming ad-free, so that the app will keep on identifying the songs that it listens to without any interruptions. The Android version will also be dropping advertisements and will remain available even if Apple is already the owner of Shazam.
Shazam In Apple Music?
Apple's plans to include Shazam in its core products are still unknown. There is the possibility that Apple will not change anything and allow Shazam to remain as a standalone app, or that the service will be integrated into Apple Music as one of its features. Of course, the two things can happen at the same time.
Shazam may also be integrated deeper into Siri, to make the digital assistant more powerful and give it a boost amid competition with Amazon's Alexa and Google Assistant. Siri already features Shazam integration, but Apple may now be able to bake the music identification app even deeper into the code of the digital assistant and the iOS.
Shazam is one of Apple Music's biggest acquisitions, not just in music but overall. This likely means that Apple has big things in store for Shazam, but the company has not yet revealed them.
