After several days of rumors, on Monday, December 11, Apple has acquired Shazam and confirmed the purchase of the music recognition application.

Apple has acquired Shazam. The Cupertino company confirmed the upcoming acquisition of the British company, which could allow it to compete better with Spotify, the market leader in streaming music. No amount of the acquisition has been disclosed, but there are about 400 million dollars (about 340 million euros). A nice deal done by Apple under the nose and beard of Snapchat who was also in the ranks, because Shazam was valued probably closer to a billion dollars.

“ We are thrilled that Shazam and its talented team will be joining Apple. Since the launch of the App Store, Shazam has consistently ranked as one of the most popular apps for iOS. Today, it’s used by hundreds of millions of people around the world, across multiple platforms.

Apple Music and Shazam are a natural fit, sharing a passion for music discovery and delivering great music experiences to our users. We have exciting plans in store, and we look forward to combining with Shazam upon approval of today’s agreement. ”

- Apple

Shazam generates revenue by displaying advertisements on his app. She also earns commissions by redirecting her users to legal or streaming download platforms. But the rapid decline of song purchases, in favor of streaming, has weakened its model.

Apple's development strategy at the heart of this acquisition

Apple has acquired Shazam and get its hands on technologies that it has not yet developed internally. By adding music recognition to its streaming offering, the company will be able to collect more data on what its subscribers are listening to, and offer them recommendations and even more personalized playlists.

In July, Spotify broke through 60 million paid subscribers, while Apple Music totaled 30 million customers at the end of September. Above all, the dynamic is in favor of the Swedish company: it earns about two million subscribers per month, against less than one million for its competitor.

The Personal Assistants market in Focus

Apple has acquired Shazam and add music recognition to its streaming offering, the company will be able to collect more data on what its subscribers are listening to, and offer them recommendations and even more personalized playlists. But most importantly, Apple can integrate the option of music recognition to his personal assistant Siri and thus be ideally placed on this market in full explosion.

Shazam's technology could also benefit the connected speaker "HomePod", whose marketing has been postponed until 2018. Amazon, the market leader with its "Echo" range, does not yet offer such a feature. But Google plans to deploy similar technology on its home speakers.

When the future of the application, Apple has not specified whether Shazam will continue to exist independently of Apple Music. But the specialists predict its survival always in the optics of a strategy, this time of surveillance. In fact, the application should continue to collect data, especially on Android users. There is also a safe bet that Shazam no longer sends its users to Spotify.