Apple has confirmed its plan to acquire the music-discovery service Shazam.
In a statement to Coins2Day, an Apple spokesperson said that the tech giant is “thrilled that Shazam and its talented team will be joining Apple.” While the Apple spokesperson didn’t share terms of the deal, the statement did say that “Apple Music and Shazam are a natural fit,” suggesting the service could be integrated into Apple’s own music streaming app.
The U.K.-based Shazam was founded in 1999 but came into its own in 2008 when its mobile app debuted on the iPhone. The app allowed users to quickly identify from the app which song was playing. The company’s music-discovery service would then provide a link to iTunes, where users could quickly buy the app from Apple’s online store. An Android version of the app was released later that year.
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Shazam has since deepened its product offerings and can now recognize a variety of content, including movies, advertising, and television shows. The app, which uses the smartphone’s microphone and then compares what it hears to its database of content, has been available as a free download since 2008. Its app has been downloaded more than 1 billion times.
As Shazam’s popularity grew, the company was courted by a variety of venture capitalists. Over its 18-year history, Shazam raised $143 million from a variety of firms, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and has been valued at as much as $1 billion.
While neither Apple nor Shazam confirmed how much the tech giant is paying for Shazam, a report from TechCrunch on Friday tipping that a deal was in the offing said that Apple would pay about $400 million for the company. If that’s true, Apple is paying significantly less than Shazam had been valued at.
It’s unknown exactly what Apple has planned for Shazam, but it’s likely the discovery features will be added to Apple Music at some point in the future. As of this writing, Shazam is still available in app marketplaces, but the iPhone maker in the past has removed its acquisitions from other stores to make them unique offerings for its own services. It’s possible Apple does the same with Shazam.
In a statement to Coins2Day, a Shazam spokesperson said that the company is “excited” to be joining Apple.
