Back in December last year Apple confirmed the acquisition of London-based music recognition service Shazam. Today the Cupertino giant has announced that it has completed the acquisition. It also said that the app will soon be ad-free for all users. The company currently charges $2.99 or ₹ 249 for ad-free experience.
Shazam till date has over 1 Billion app downloads and specializes in recognizing music clips from its large database. It also provides more information to users about the music and the artists and also capable of redirecting users to other sites where you can download and listen to the music. Though Apple didn’t disclose the value of the acquisition, earlier reports said that it could be $400 million.
Apple is not killing the Shazam app for Android since it is still getting updates. Today the Android app got updated with support for Android Pie offering better start up and improved power management.
Commenting on the acquisition, Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music, said:
Apple and Shazam have a long history together. Shazam was one of the first apps available when we launched the App Store and has become a favorite app for music fans everywhere. With a shared love of music and innovation, we are thrilled to bring our teams together to provide users even more great ways to discover, experience and enjoy music.