Apple buys UK-based Shazam for £300m
Apple has bought British-based Shazam for £300million.
The purchase of the music identification app will add to Apple’s already extensive music portfolio, which includes the iTunes store and Apple Music streaming service.
It is unclear what Apple’s plans are for Shazam, but the deal is likely to strengthen its existing partnership with Apple Music and its voice recognition service Siri.
Shazam identifies music through a smartphone or tablet and then returns song information.
Users can then buy or listen to the song. Although it has proved popular, Shazam’s value has declined. Just a few years ago was thought to be worth around £700million.
Apple could choose to use Shazam exclusively through its own streaming service – costing its rival music streaming service Spotify around 1m clicks per day. The app has been downloaded more than 1bn times and has around 12bn songs on its database.
‘Shazam has consistently ranked as one of the most popular apps,’ an Apple spokesman said.