Apple Is Buying Music Discovery App Shazam For A Reported $400 Million

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The popular app recently
achieved profitability but
faced questions about its
long-term prospects.
Apple confirmed today that it’s
finalizing a deal to acquire the
music recognition and discovery
app Shazam. According to Tech
Crunch , the deal is valued at
roughly $400 million, although
that number has not been
confirmed by either company.
If Tech Crunch ’s report is
accurate, Shazam’s $400 million
valuation would be down
significantly from its reported $1
billion value in 2015, the last
time it raised venture capital
funding. It’s unclear how Apple
plans to integrate it into the
company’s existing offerings,
although Shazam currently
directs a significant amount of
traffic to both Apple Music and
Spotify with its signature music
discovery function. Both services
pay Shazam when clickthroughs
turn into purchases.

Shazam, best known for its app
that allows users to identify
songs, TV shows, and films with
a few seconds of audio or video
analysis, was first founded in
1999 as a call-in service, and has
achieved widespread popularity
over the past decade. It passed
one billion downloads in 2016,
and has raised hundreds of
millions of dollars in venture
capital funding. Still, it hasn’t
managed to make much money.
The company achieved
profitability for the first time in
2016 after a significant strategy
shift towards advertising, but
questions remained about its
long-term financial health. It also
began branching out into other
areas of media, launching the
successful Beat Shazam game
show that was recently renewed
for a second season.

According to Tech Crunch , both
Spotify and Snapchat’s parent
company Snap, Inc. expressed
interest in acquiring Shazam, but
ultimately weren’t able to settle
on a price or a model to
integrate it into the existing
businesses of the respective
platforms. It’s possible that
current integration with both
Spotify and Snapchat could be
changed or axed once Apple
takes control, although nothing is
confirmed yet.
Earlier today, Apple released a
full statement about the
purchase:
Check out Tech Crunch ’s full
report here to learn more about
the deal.

We are thrilled that Shazam
and its talented team will
be joining Apple. Since the
launch of the App Store,
Shazam has consistently
ranked as one of the most
popular apps for iOS.
Today, it’s used by
hundreds of millions of
people around the world,
across multiple platforms.
Apple Music and Shazam
are a natural fit, sharing a
passion for music discovery
and delivering great music
experiences to our users.
We have exciting plans in
store, and we look forward
to combining with Shazam
upon approval of today’s
agreement.
 
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