The song identification service Shazam was bought by Apple in 2018. But it actually started out back in August 2002, which means it turned 20 years old this week. To celebrate its milestone birthday, Apple Music has shared a 20 Years of Shazam Hits playlist, featuring the most Shazamed tracks from each calendar year from the past two decades.
The company also announced the service has crossed 70 billion total track recognitions to date, detected from clips submitted by its 225 million monthly active users …
Although the company rose to popularity during the App Store gold rush years, the service actually started way before the iPhone. In 2002, Shazam launched in the UK as a phone-in service. Users would call a number and hold up their phone to the music. Shazam would then text them back with the song name and artist.
Shazam launched on day one of the iPhone App Store launch, and was available on Android a few months later. Apple partnered with the company to offer Shazam song recognition through Siri, starting with iOS 8.
Apple acquired the company in 2018, citing shared innovation with Apple Music. Shazam is now integrated directly into Control Center on the iPhone so users don’t even need to download an app, and Apple uses Shazam to power playlist generation and discovery inside of Apple Music.
Drake is the most Shazamed artist of all time, with over 350 million Shazams across his songs. The individual most-Shazamed song is the 2019 smash viral hit Dance Monkey, by Tones And I, which has over 41 million Shazams to date.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments