Apple completes Shazam acquisition
The music identification service has now officially joined the iPhone maker.
Apple has completed its acquisition of music identification app Shazam.
The technology giant’s takeover of the music service, which uses algorithms and sound recognition to identify songs, is reportedly worth about £300 million.
It has not disclosed if and how the service will be incorporated into Apple’s own ecosystem, but it was announced that the app would be removing all ads “soon” to give an interruption-free experience.
Oliver Schusser, Apple Music’s vice president, said: “Apple and Shazam have a long history together. Shazam was one of the first apps available when we launched the App Store and has become a favourite app for music fans everywhere.
“With a shared love of music and innovation, we are thrilled to bring our teams together to provide users even more great ways to discover, experience and enjoy music.”
Shazam has been downloaded one billion times around the world and is used to identify songs more than 20 million times a day.
EU regulators had been probing the deal on the grounds that could affect competition, but gave the acquisition the green light earlier this month.
The European Commission said it had found that the move “would not reduce competition in the digital music streaming market”.
