Apple confirms Shazam acquisition
Apple confirms Shazam acquisition, further extending its reach in the quest to dominate the streaming business.
On Friday Tech Crunch reported that Apple was eager to buy Shazam.
Well, the deal was signed faster than what it takes to say “Shazam” as Apple confirmed the R400 million acquisition yesterday.
Shazam is an app that allows millions of users to identify songs, movies, TV shows, and commercials from short audio clips.
The streaming world is ever-evolving, ever-competitive so gaining an edge over other companies (like Spotify) is a massive deal for Apple.
“We are thrilled that Shazam and its talented team will be joining Apple,” an Apple spokesperson told The Verge. “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.”
Hot Damn, Shazam!
“We are excited to announce that Shazam has entered into an agreement to become part of Apple,” Shazam said in a statement to The Verge. “Shazam is one of the highest rated apps in the world and loved by hundreds of millions of users and we can’t imagine a better home for Shazam to enable us to continue innovating and delivering magic for our users.”
The acquisition cost is far less than their $1 billion 2016 valuation, but the company has experienced difficulty finding a viable business model, pulling in a mere $54 million in revenue in 2016.
Shazam is definitely an asset to Apple, most distinctly to Apple Music were the company can improve the experience of the service.
If Apple would choose to shut down the app, it would take way referrals to Spotify.
Shazam’s music and sound recognition, which is already Siri-integrated, could gain a deeper integration with iOS.
Shazam’s augmented reality technology is also a strong asset that could help Apple develop a Google Lens-type feature and improve its ARKit efforts.
Apple confirms Shazam acquisition, which took less time than saying “Shazam.”
Wam bam!
