Since its launch, Shazam has officially exceeded over 100 billion music recognitions. To better contextualize the information being discussed:
- There are approximately 7.9 billion people on Earth, which would equate to around 95 million songs being equal to one song per person.
- A person seeking to identify a song with Shazam every second for 3,168 years to achieve a staggering 100 billion matches.
- According to reports, this song has surpassed a staggering 44.8 million Shazam identifications for “Dance Monkey,” an astonishing 2,200 times more than the average identification count for high-profile hits like Shazam’s.
- Benson Boone’s Shazam prediction for “Lovely Issues” broke records in 2023, becoming the first track released this year to reach 10 million recognitions, achieving this milestone in just 178 days. It would likely take more than 4,800 years at this tempo for the number to reach 100 billion?
“As Shazam hits this milestone, it’s clear that users’ enthusiasm isn’t just about recognizing old favorites, but also a desire to discover fresh sounds,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple’s Vice President of Apple Music and Beats. “Innovative music discovery is at the heart of everything we do, empowering music enthusiasts globally to instantly identify songs wherever and whenever they’re played.”
In 2002, Shazam debuted as a pioneering SMS-based music recognition service in the UK. To use the platform, users would dial 2580, wait for their phones to scan the song, and receive the track title and artist information via text message. As Shazam’s popularity and influence grew over the years, it wasn’t until the 2008 launch of the App Store and introduction of Shazam’s iOS app that its music recognition technology reached a massive audience of hundreds of thousands of users. As of the summer of 2011, Shazam had successfully identified more than one billion unique songs.
In 2018, Apple’s acquisition of Shazam marked a significant milestone in the evolution of music discovery, unlocking unprecedented access to songs through cutting-edge technology and innovative features.
The latest enhancements enable seamless music recognition on both iOS and macOS platforms, allowing users to quickly identify songs playing around them or within apps, even when using headphones with ease. Apple’s latest watchOS update takes it up a notch by incorporating Shazam as a widget within the Apple Watch’s Today View, cleverly proposing song recognition whenever nearby music is picked up. With the seamless integration of Shazam into the Motion button on latest iPhone and Apple Watch models, customers can now effortlessly recognize music with just a simple press-and-hold, taking music identification to new heights of convenience. With the latest Wear OS update, Shazam now empowers Android users to identify songs directly from their smartwatch, further amplifying their musical expertise. Shazam’s Fast Settings tile now enables users to access their playback history directly.
Shazam’s growing reputation may also be attributed to its ability to stay attuned to the pulse of music and seize world music trends and moments, as exemplified by this summer’s video games in Paris where Kavinsky’s “Nightcall” became the most recognized song within a single minute. Shazam’s commitment to revolutionizing music discovery is evident in its remarkable track record, fostering a community of over 300 million monthly active users who engage enthusiastically with their favorite artists.
