Shazam surpasses 1B Shazams per month

Shazam has surpassed 1 billion Shazams per month on average and 50 billion tags since it launched almost 20 years ago.

Shazam launched as a text message service in 2002 and saw exponential growth in 2008 when the app launched. It took Shazam 10 years to reach its first billion tags.

Less than 10 years after that, Shazam – now owned by Apple – delivers 1 billion monthly recognitions for a lifetime total of 50 billion of 51 million songs.

The first-ever Shazam result – received via text message – was “Jeepster” by T. Rex. The 50 billionth Shazamed song was Evangeline’s Mandopop song “框不住的愛 (不插電版).”

Tones and I’s “Dance Monkey” is the most Shazamed track of all time.

Bruce Houghton is Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank and serves as a Senior Advisor to Bandsintown which acquired both publications in 2019. He is also the Founder and President of the Skyline Artists Agency and a professor at the Berklee College Of Music online.