TechCrunch advanced on Friday: Apple was closing the purchase of Shazam. After a weekend without pronouncements, the acquisition of the application of musical recognition has been confirmed to different media with identical statements published practically simultaneously.
In portals like 9to5Mac or The Verge they have been able to read the words that the company has made public and that bring us closer to the reason for the purchase.
We are delighted that Shazam and his talented team join Apple. Apple Music and Shazam fit together perfectly, share a passion for discovering music and offer excellent music experiences to our users. We have exciting plans in store and we hope to be able to combine them with Shazam when today’s agreement is approved.
The acquisition of the famous application is logically linked to its music service on demand, in a more than natural relationship, but it does not stop there . Beyond the musical identification integrated in Siri from iOS 8, the use that will be able to make the ecosystem of Apple is considerable.
More musical power, better assistant, augmented reality …
If confirmed the figure of the operation unveiled last week, located at about 400 million US dollars, we would be facing one of the largest acquisitions of Apple . Although it is far from the 3,000 million that it cost to acquire Beats Electronics in 2014, another musical purchase, and of the 1,000 million dollars in which Shazam Entertainment Limited was valued only two years ago .
And is that the service is, from the beginning of the App Store, one of the most popular applications of iOS , an equally popular application in other platforms and an example of adaptation, although its assessment has fallen in recent years. As far as possible and without losing its essential role, it has explored opportunities for growth in other areas over time.
It is precisely this set that Apple would pursue to add to its ecosystem. In the first place, the basic function to which we alluded, the basic characteristic with which Shazam was born and that Apple managed to integrate into Siri through an agreement on both iPhone, iPad and Mac: musical recognition .
The technology that allows it will be completely yours and that function of recognition without invocation that the assistant had at the beginning of the integration will probably come back. Google has long allowed the search of songs through its mobile application and the new Pixel 2 , in addition, they look for them automatically and even offline . Those of Cupertino, like this, will be able to adequately cover this characteristic of the competition.
But continuing with the recognition and the race to dominate the musical terrain are added several variables with which Apple can continue to take advantage of this purchase. The most obvious one they allude to, the reinforcement of Apple Music .
This service along with its huge rival to beat, Spotify, receive daily from Shazam no less than 1 million clicks . Closing the application would be a way to stop sending traffic, while maintaining it would be an opportunity to gain more users on your platform with a new definition of the service. No details have been given and therefore everything seems possible.
The experience of Apple Music, likewise, could be improved thanks to the experience of the team that is now going to be integrated into the Californian company and HomePod, its intelligent loudspeaker, could add whole numbers increasing even more and better its benefits in front of the competition of Google Home and Amazon Echo. The two companies responsible for these devices, let’s not forget, also have music services on demand.
Finally, it is worth mentioning the experience of Shazam in technologies of visual recognition and augmented reality , as well as its interesting platform dedicated to the brands that decide to exploit this kind of content.
With this knowledge Apple would be in a position to improve ARKit , achieve new features and income possibilities. The scanning of real world objects to access promotions, additional content or even animations has been a reality since March and there are many brands that have been interested in advertising some of their products using these methods. Cupertino, if he wanted, could put himself at the forefront of this type of advertising.