Apple buys Shazam, and will soon make the app ad-free

Apple announced that it has finished acquiring Shazam, a widely popular and highly rated music app, earlier this week. Shazam is a music discovery app which currently has more than 100 million monthly active users and has been downloaded over 1 billion times around the world. It allows users to discover and identify songs with just a few clicks.

“Apple and Shazam have a long history together. Shazam was one of the first apps available when we launched the App Store and it has become a favorite app for music fans everywhere,” mentioned Oliver Schusser, Vice President, Apple Music, in the press release.

The price of this acquisition hasn’t been specified anywhere, but as per Recode, it is estimated to be around $400 million.

The news of this acquisition comes three weeks after the EU regulators gave a go-ahead signal to Apple. When Apple mentioned about its plans to buy Shazam for $400 million back in December 2017, EU regulators started an investigation into this acquisition. This was over the concern that Apple’s acquisition of Shazam would potentially give Apple an unfair advantage over its rivals such as Spotify.

“At this stage, the Commission is concerned that, following the takeover of Shazam, Apple would obtain access to commercially sensitive data about customers of its competitors. Access to such data could allow Apple to directly target its competitors' customers and encourage them to switch to Apple Music. As a result, the competing music streaming services could be put at a competitive disadvantage”, reads the EU press release.

Users all around the world identify songs using the Shazam app over 20 million times every day. Additionally, it helps people share video, audio or printed content across different devices and mediums. It also helps music fans follow their favorite artists.

Whether Apple has plans of integrating the Shazam app with Apple music or not requires another official announcement. For now, Apple aims to make Shazam ad-free. This will ensure that users are able to enjoy music, without any form of interruption.

“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”, mentions Schusser.

For more information, check out Apple’s official announcement.