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Apple Celebrates Shazam Turning 20 With Playlist Featuring Each Year's Most Shazamed Song

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Apple today announced that popular music identification service Shazam launched 20 years ago today. To celebrate the milestone, Apple shared a playlist featuring the most Shazamed song of each calendar year for the past 20 years.

shazam-for-mac.jpg

"Featuring everything from Train's 'Hey, Soul Sister' to Sia's 'Cheap Thrills,' the playlist is a true reflection of the music fans across the globe actively searched for over the past two decades," said Apple. The playlist is available on Apple Music.

​

Shazam launched in August 2002 as a text message service in the UK and went on to become one of the first apps in the App Store in July 2008.

Apple acquired Shazam in 2018 for a reported $400 million and has since integrated the music identification service into Control Center on the iPhone. Apple has steadily improved Shazam since acquiring the service by removing ads from the app, adding a concert discovery feature, enabling Shazam support in third-party apps, and more.

Shazam now has more than 225 million global monthly users and has surpassed 70 billion song recognitions, according to Apple. Drake is the most Shazamed artist of all time, with over 350 million Shazams across songs he released or was featured in, while "Dance Monkey" by Tones And I is the most Shazamed song ever with over 41 million Shazams.

In a press release, Apple listed some notable moments and milestones over Shazam's two-decade history, including the first-ever Shazamed song, the fastest tracks to accumulate Shazams, the top Shazamed songs by genre, and more.

Shazam has apps available for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Android and Windows devices, and more. In iOS 14.2 and later, Apple includes a Music Recognition toggle for the Control Center, giving iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users a quick and easy way to identify what music is playing via Shazam without having to download the app.

Article Link: Apple Celebrates Shazam Turning 20 With Playlist Featuring Each Year's Most Shazamed Song
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/08/19/apple-celebrates-shazam-turning-20/
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julesme

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Oct 14, 2016
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AirunJae said:
The guys on Connected reminded me that this started out as a phone-based service that you called and they texted back the song title and artist to you. Wild.
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I’m curious if anyone could elaborate on how this worked. Once you called, Shazam recorded the audio from your flip phone’s mic? I imagine most people assumed Shazam was a product of the iPhone / App Store era.
 
dannys1

dannys1

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Sep 19, 2007
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stinkdieren said:
I use it to ID obscure music.. WHY would I want to see a list with the top 10 commercial crap
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It is weird isn't it. I mean I hate Drake but i'm able to tell a track is him (they sound the same for a start) so why are other people not able to easily identify this and are need to Shazam it?!

The stuff I tend to Shazam only has a 50% chance of even being in the database.
 
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mansplains

mansplains

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brett_x said:
You mean to tell me that a large number of readers of this site never had to wonder what song was playing, at any point in their lives? Wow.
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The only reason I'd want to know what song is playing in most places is so I could remove it from suggestions in streaming. I loathe the music played in retail, restaurants, etc. I wouldn't say it ruins any "atmosphere" but it's all the same garbage. If we were in the days of buying vinyl regularly no one would own those albums. Also this isn't a "my generation has better music" argument, I dislike all of that too. Basically I'm a hater 😂
 
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d686546s

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Jan 11, 2021
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F*** I'm old. I first used this on my OG iPhone and even that was 14 years ago. People born then already have iPhones of their own.
 
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john9876

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Jul 14, 2008
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julesme said:
I’m curious if anyone could elaborate on how this worked. Once you called, Shazam recorded the audio from your flip phone’s mic? I imagine most people assumed Shazam was a product of the iPhone / App Store era.
Click to expand...
I used to use this on my old Nokia candybar phones back in 2002 onwards. You dialed 2580 (the buttons down the centre of the keypad, easy to remember) and it listened to the call for 30 seconds, then hung up and texted you back the answer. Worked pretty well right from the start, it certainly seemed like magic back then!
 
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ss2cire

ss2cire

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Jun 18, 2008
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Neat, now i have some new old music to listen to. I've rarely used the app as I pretty much have a set list of songs I listen to, but I'm always willing to hear new music (or in this case, old).
 
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