Early reports are indicating that Apple is making a move for music-identifying service Shazam. If you’re not familiar with Shazam, the app has the ability to identify songs you may not know just by listening to a few seconds of it. The deal Apple is trying to ink is reportedly worth $400 million USD, and both TechCrunch and Recode are confirming the news. Purchasing Shazam has some big benefits for Apple.
- Apple would acquire valuable sound and music recognition technology and software
- Apple will no longer have to pay Shazam’s fees for referring users to the iTunes store
- Apple will gain new AR technology developed by the company
- Apple could integrate the service into its own Apple Music and shutter it to the competition
If Apple did close the service and kept it to themselves that would negatively affect other streaming services. According to the Wall Street Journal, Shazam sends over 1 million users to services like Google Play Music and Spotify. If the app was closed, that would stop. The company has also built a new AR technology that could bolster Apple’s interest in augmented reality apps and services.
People have been using this app for 19-years and it has over 1 billion downloads. It’s obvious that users find the music recognition technology helpful and it makes sense to integrate the service into Apple Music. This would make Apple’s service more appealing to users which could pull some user base from Spotify, Tidal, Pandora, Google Play Music and others.
The deal isn’t official, but it is expected to be finalized and announced in the coming days. It will be interesting to see if Apple plays nice with others or just shuts Shazam down and keeps the tech for their own needs.
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[button link=”https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/8/16753962/apple-shazam-acquisition-report” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: The Verge[/button]
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