Apple to Acquire Shazam

Shazam’s features are also integrated with Apple’s Siri voice assistant. The deal is reportedly for $400 million, according to Recode, which also confirmed the news.

“One source describes the deal as in the nine figures; another puts it at around $401 million”.

While neither Shazam nor Apple have commented on the reported acquisition, if the rumors are true, we’ll only have to sit through the weekend to find out the facts. Right now, Shazam integrates with the app, but that may change if Apple takes ownership.

Users of Apple’s iPhone with the Shazam app installed can say: “Hey Siri, what’s that song?” and the app will identify it. If Apple willed in saying that it wants its own version of Google Lens, then that might be a good place to begin.

But what’s really interesting is the amount that Apple is supposedly paying to buy Shazam.

According to the Shazam, its app has been downloaded in 190 countries over 1 billion times. Now it seems that this sound and music recognition technique will be marked under the name of Apple.

Earlier this year Shazam introduced an augmented reality platform for brands, founding upon the visual recognition technology introduced back in the year 2015. Users can scan Shazam codes, or QR codes, to launch 3D animations, product visualizations, mini-games and 360-degree videos.

Shazam right now has agreements with other services like Spotify, Snapchat, and Google Play Music, but it’s unclear at this point how this acquisition will affect those agreements. It’s also not hard to imagine that the often used Save To Spotify feature within the Shazam app will go away forever.