Apple announced today that its music recognition app Shazam has identified more than 100 billion songs since its launch in 2002. The app started as an SMS service in the U.K., where users would dial a number, hold up their phones to identify music, and receive the song name and artist via text message. Shazam’s popularity grew with the debut of the App Store in 2008 and the introduction of its iOS app.
By the summer of 2011, the app had reached over 1 billion song recognitions. When Apple acquired Shazam in 2018, the service entered a new era of technological advances. Innovations like Music Recognition on iOS and macOS allow users to quickly identify music around them or within apps, even while using headphones.
The latest watchOS update includes Shazam as a widget, suggesting music recognition whenever music is detected nearby. The integration of Shazam into the Action button on recent iPhone and Apple Watch models enables song identification with a simple press-and-hold.
Shazam’s music discovery milestone
For Android users, the latest Wear OS update enables song identification directly from a user’s watch and offers access to users’ song history via Shazam’s Quick Settings tile. Apple shared some interesting comparisons for this milestone:
– It’s equivalent to 12 songs identified for every person on Earth. – A person would need to use Shazam to identify a song every second for 3,168 years to reach 100 billion.
– This is more than 2,200 times the number of identifications of Shazam’s top song ever, “Dance Monkey,” which has over 45 million tags. “This monumental milestone not only reflects how much people enjoy using Shazam, but also their appetite for new music,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and Beats. Music discovery is at the core of everything we do, and we keep innovating to make sure music lovers around the world can tap the Shazam button no matter where they hear music playing!
Shazam’s growing popularity is also due to its ability to capture global music trends and moments.
For instance, during this summer’s games in Paris, Kavinsky’s “Nightcall” became the most identified song in one minute. These achievements highlight Shazam’s ongoing commitment to pushing the boundaries of music discovery while connecting its over 300 million monthly active users with the artists they love.
