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EU approves Apple’s acquisition of music recognition service Shazam

The EU has approved Apple’s acquisition of Shazam (via Reuters), the music recognition and discovery service. Apple announced it was buying the company in December, but had to wait on EU approval which launched an anticompetitive investigation to decide whether Apple’s purchase would lock out competition and unfairly elevate Apple Music.


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Apple’s Shazam acquisition sparks ‘in-depth’ EU antitrust investigation through September 4

Apple confirmed plans to buy music tagging service Shazam back in December, but Apple’s acquisition of the London-based firm still hasn’t received EU antitrust regulatory approval yet. Apple moved to close the deal back in March when the European Commission took control of the approval process, and a decision to OK the deal or launch an in-depth investigation was promised today.

First reported by Reuters, the European Commission has formally moved to launch an ‘in-depth’ four month investigation into the proposed deal before allowing or blocking Apple’s takeover of Shazam. The EC says the risk of Apple buying Shazam is limiting choice of music streaming services…


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Apple seeks regulatory approval for Shazam acquisition; decision expected on April 23

Apple last year confirmed a rumor that it was buying Shazam, but that plan stumbled last month when European antitrust regulators said that they were launching an investigation into the deal.

Apple yesterday sought formal approval of the deal, and the European Commission said today that it will make a decision by April 23 – though not necessarily a final one …


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‘Best case’ of Apple’s Shazam acquisition would add 7.5M Apple Music subscribers, says early investor

Apple Music

There have been conflicting theories about why Apple spent a rumored $400M on acquiring Shazam. Some suggested it was nothing more than protecting Siri’s Shazam-powered music recognition. Others wondered whether it was to expose Shazam’s customer base to Apple Music. Yet others theorized it was for the data.

Now one early investor in Shazam has suggested that the combination of the latter two elements could significantly boost Apple Music subscriptions …


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Comment: Did Apple buy Shazam for the data, and if so, what now?

Apple is a rich company, but even so, a rumored $400M is a lot of money to spend on buying a single app. So some eyebrows were raised when Apple confirmed its acquisition of Shazam earlier this week.

Shazam already powers Siri’s music recognition, so will at least be saving the ongoing licensing fee it paid for this, but what could justify spending so much money on the app … ?


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