Apple to buy Shazam

Apple is in the final phase of purchasing Shazam, an app enabling recognition of songs, films and TV shows, TechCrunch reports.

The price of the purchase currently amounts to USD 400 million, but Apple will save some money thanks to the fee its has been paying Shazam for directing users to iTunes Store. It was precisely this fee that made up most of Shazam's income last year, and the app makes up 10% of total digital sales.

Also, if Apple decides to discontinue the app, it will strike a serious blow against services such as Spotify and Google Play Music, which Shazam provides with over a million clicks a day. Shazam also has an agreement with Snapchat. However, it is still not certain how Apple's move will impact the said agreements.

The biggest benefit for Apple will come from Shazam's augmented reality technology, developed following the visual recognition technology from 2015. This technology enables users to scan magazines, books, posters, ads and other physical products, and to then display 3D animations, product visualization and 360-degree clips. If Apple wants to make its own version of Google Lens, this will be a good basis.

Shazam has been downloaded over a billion times so far. The company was founded 18 years ago.

Apple Cupertino, USA

Apple

Shazam app

digital sales

song recognition

film recognition

TV show recognition

iTunes Store

Spotify

Google Play Music

Snapchat

AR technology

augmented reality

Google Lens