Shazam, one of the world’s most popular and acclaimed music recognition applications, has surpassed 1 billion Shazams per month and 50 billion tags since its launch. 

Initially launched as a text messaging service in the United Kingdom in 2002, the app was first released in 2008 on the Apple App Store and subsequently launched on other platforms in the next few years.

Commenting on the app’s remarkable achievement, Oliver Schusser, Apple’s Vice-President of Apple Music and Beats said: “Shazam is synonymous with magic, both for the fans getting a song recognition almost instantly and for the artists being discovered.”

He also added: “With 1 billion recognitions a month, Shazam is one of the most popular music apps in the world. Today’s milestones show not only people’s love for Shazam but also the ever-growing appetite for music discovery around the world.”

 

 

 

 

 

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Shazam has notable achievements throughout its run. In November 2020, the app surpassed 200 million monthly active users globally. Taking a trip down history lane, ‘Jeepster’ by T.Rex was the first-ever Shazam result, and Evangeline’s Mandopop song ‘框不住的愛 (不插電版)’ was the 50 billionth Shazamed song. Currently, Aussie pop breakout Tones and I holds the record for the most Shazamed track of all time with ‘Dance Monkey', standing at an almighty count of 38.9 million Shazams' as of 17 June 2021.

Shazam reiterates its dedication to privacy concerns, stating that it's designed with the users’ protection. The company explains that a digital fingerprint of the audio is created when the app is music searching and matches that fingerprint against its database of millions of tracks to generate the song match. The digital fingerprint is generated on the device, with no audio being sent to Apple. 

Apple acquired Shazam in September 2018 and announced ShazamKit in Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) 2021. ShazamKit allows developers to integrate Shazam's audio recognition technology directly into their app, making it possible to match Shazam’s wide catalogue of songs or make prerecorded audio recognisable by building a custom catalogue using audio from video, podcasts, and more. It is expected to be released later this year.