Shazam Removes Ads As Apple Completes Acquisition

Apple announced that it has completed its acquisition of music recognition app Shazam which is used by hundreds of millions globally. Along with the acquisition, Apple will make the app ad free. 

Shazam has been downloaded over 1 billion times and users identify songs using the Shazam app over 20 million times daily. 

“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,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music. “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.”

For now, users can still save tracks identified by Shazam to Spotify, Deezer and Google Play, as well as Apple Music.  It seems likely that when the app goes ad free, all app activity will be directly to Apple Music and iTunes.