Apple May Acquire Music Recognition Service Shazam

[MacRumors]

Apple may be planning to acquire music recognition service Shazam, reports TechCrunch, which would be one of the most high-profile acquisitions Apple has made since it purchased Beats in 2014.

Shazam is a well-known music service that uses machine learning techniques to identify short audio clips from songs, television shows, and more. Shazam operates a standalone app for iOS, macOS, and watchOS, but also has a close relationship with Apple.

Since iOS 8, Shazam has been integrated into Siri, and it's what powers the feature that lets Siri identify songs that are playing aloud. If, for example, there's a specific song on television and you ask Siri "What song is this?" Siri uses Shazam to identify it.

Shazam is integrated with Apple Music, and Apple Music subscribers who Shazam a song can then tap to play it directly in Apple Music and can add it to a Shazam playlist. Shazam also has an augmented reality feature that allows you to find content based on pictures captured with the Shazam app.

One of TechCrunch's sources said the deal could be worth nine figures, while another says Apple may shell out somewhere around $401 million. Both numbers are lower than the $1.02 billion valuation Shazam received during its last funding round in 2015.

Apple and Shazam could sign a deal as soon as this week, with an announcement planned for Monday.

Article Link: Apple May Acquire Music Recognition Service Shazam

 

[modemthug]

Oh man cue Google fan heads exploding

 

[jonnysods]

I'm surprised this hasn't happened years ago!

 

[barkomatic]

This would be awesome, and might allow Apple to bake it into iOS. You could set Shazam to listen all the time and display a song title without having to activate it--ala the Pixel.

 

[berrymetal]

wow! This is yuge!
I hope they do.

 

[krause734]

It is a useful feature but it's not a billion dollar feature.

 

[neliason]

While a neat service I don’t see neat being worth half a billion let alone a billion dollars. I would think given their size, wealth, and expertise Apple could just build their own service. Is the brand really worth that much?

 

[A_A]

It is a useful feature but it's not a billion dollar feature.

It might be for their tech that can allow Siri to identify speech and other phrases better to better understand what people are asking if Shazzam can identify music and TV shows better than other services

 

[vicviper789]

atleast we know what the main feature of the iphone 11 will be

 

[mistasopz]

Oh man cue Google fan heads exploding

Google Assistant has been able to identify songs for a long time and better than Shazam. Aside from Google's great accuracy, even in noisy environments, the best part is that you don't have to make the request through the worst voice assistant on the market:. Siri.

 

[DrumApple]

Always wished Spotify would have acquired them and made it a simple music recognition feature within the app. I'm very selective about which apps I install, I never justified keeping Shazam installed just for this one function that I'd use probably once or twice a month. Hey maybe Spotify will have it's own song finder one day, there are plenty of clones.

 

[iKrivetko]

High time if you ask me.

 

[PizzaBoxStyle]

While a neat service I don’t see neat being worth half a billion let alone a billion dollars. I would think given their size, wealth, and expertise Apple could just build their own service. Is the brand really worth that much?

You're kidding me, right?

Apple can barely manage the software projects its has now, let alone rewrite Shazam from scratch!

 

[iKrivetko]

It is a useful feature but it's not a billion dollar feature.

Don't be bloody ridiculous. Companies buy engineering teams, technology and exclusive access, not features.

 

[fermat-au]

Acqui-hiring? This is an area that Google has a significantly lead over Apple.

 

[citysnaps]

Makes a lot of sense. Good move!

 

[ArneK]

Oh god, please not. First thing they will remove is Spotify support

 

[iosuser]

Ah so when I asked Siri to name this tune it is just passing that request to Shazam.

I remember when I first bought my first iPhone (3GS), my boss' kid showed me Shazam. Couldn't believe how well it worked, and how well informed his kid was on this stuff lol. In my defense, I came from a Blackberry Storm to the 3GS. Before that I was rocking a Razr for nearly 5 years

 

[scrapesleon]

400 million Shazam gonna need more than that

 

[gugy]

Shazam is awesome!

 

[TimUSCA]

It is a useful feature but it's not a billion dollar feature.

That's because they don't care about the feature nearly as much as they care about user data like listening habits and whatnot. That information will boost Apple Music and make it worth a billion.

 

[Cankoda]

Google Assistant has been able to identify songs for a long time and better than Shazam. Aside from Google's great accuracy, even in noisy environments, the best part is that you don't have to make the request through the worst voice assistant on the market:. Siri.

I think you’re forgetting Bixby somehow exists...

 

[MacLawyer]

Better Apple than Microsoft. Microsoft's acquisitions have left a trail of destruction.

 

[bgraham]

Cool, can't wait to uninstall it when it drops support for Spotify!

 

[6803390]

Cool, can't wait to uninstall it when it drops support for Spotify!

Does it really matter? If it can continue to recognise the song, then I don’t see any reason why you should uninstall it? I would be glad if this happens.