One of the most popular third-party apps on the App Store has officially been purchased by Apple.
London-based Shazam has long dominated the App Store charts with its ability to recognize any song, movie or TV show. Now Apple is bringing that tech in-house by purchasing the startup for nearly half a billion dollars.
Rumors of Apple’s acquisition of Shazam first popped up at the end of last week. At one point Shazam was valued around $1 billion, but according to Techcrunch’s sources, Apple only paid around $400 million for the company.
Scooping up Shazam
Shazam has been integrated into Siri since iOS 8, giving iPhone and iPad users an easy way to find out what songs are playing near them. Apple confirmed the purchase this morning with the following statement:
“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.”
It’s unclear what Apple plans to do with the Shazam app at this point. The company has an app for iOS and Android. Apple could fold a lot of Shazam’s functionality into Siri or the Apple Music app.
The deal between Apple and Shazam has reportedly been in the works for nearly five months. Apple finally closed in on the deal after Shazam also started talking to Spotify and Snap about a possible acquisition.
