Apple Buys UK-based Song Identifying App Shazam in $400m Deal

Apple Inc, early this week, confirmed it had reached a deal to acquire Shazam Entertainment Ltd, the U.K.- based app that lets users identify songs by pointing a smartphone at the audio source.

Technology news website TechCrunch reported the deal last week with a price of as much as $400 million, far short of the most recent $1 billion valuation for privately held Shazam.

Apple said Shazam would be a “natural fit” with its Apple Music streaming service and it would help users discover new songs. Apple Music has 27 million users and competes against Spotify Ltd, which has 60 million users. Apple said Shazam’s team would be joining the Cupertino Company.

“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,” Apple said in a statement to CNBC. “Apple Music and Shazam are a natural fit, sharing a passion for music discovery and delivering great music experiences to our users.”

In its own statement, Shazam said that it had “entered into an agreement to become part of Apple”. “We can’t imagine a better home for Shazam to enable us to continue innovating and delivering magic for our users,” the company said.

Shazam's Smartphone app is already tightly integrated with Apple’s Siri digital assistant. Users of Apple’s iPhone with the Shazam app installed can say: ‘Hey Siri, what’s that song?’ and the app will identify it. 

But Shazam has other features, such as the ability to identify television shows that do not yet work with Siri. 

Shazam is also available on Android-based devices, but Apple did not say whether it would keep the Android version available. 

Shazam ended support for a version of its software that runs on Microsoft Corp’s Windows PCs earlier this year, according to a report published on Reuters.