Apple to acquire music recognition app Shazam for $400mn
If reports are to be believed, Apple is going to acquire music-identifying app Shazam for about $400 million. The deal is expected to be officially announced on 11 December by the Cupertino tech-giant. TechCrunch reported, "One source describes the deal as in the nine figures; another puts it at around $401 million." Neither Shazam-CEO Rich Riley nor Apple commented on the matter. Here's more!
Hundreds of millions of monthly users
Shazam is an app created by British app development company Shazam Entertainment Limited. The music recognition app helps hundreds of millions of users every month to instantly identify songs and know what others are exploring. Shazam, with over one billion downloads, recognizes any song (from albums, films, TV shows, or ads) within seconds by listening to the sound clip or a visual fragment.
Apple acquired Beats in 2014
Earlier in 2014, Apple acquired Beats Electronics that formed the base for Apple Music. The Cupertino tech giant paid $3 billion for the California-based premium headphone maker; it was a significant acquisition by Apple in the field of music.
About Shazam app
Shazam is a music-identifying app for smartphones, tablets, PCs, and Macs that enables the users to identify songs. It works even when the device is offline. Shazam was initially launched as an SMS code service. The company was founded by Chris Barton, Philip Inghelbrecht, Avery Wang, and Dhiraj Mukherjee in 1999 in the US. It is headquartered in London.
How does it work?
Shazam uses the device's in-built microphone to take an acoustic fingerprint of a song being played and compares it to its database for a match. In 2012, Shazam expanded its service by allowing users to identify songs from commercials on television broadcasts, too.
How does Shazam make money?
Shazam earns the majority of its revenue from advertising on the app. It gets paid by streaming apps like Spotify, Apple Music, and the like for diverting traffic to these sites once users identify a song, and also from digital music sales. The company is valued at over $1-billion (as of 2016). It reached profitability after crossing the 1-billion download mark last year.
Funds raised by Shazam
Shazam has so far raised $143.5 million from investors, including Kleiner Perkins, London's DN Capital, IVP, and strategic investors like Sony Music, Universal Music, and Access Industries (the owner of Warner Music).
