Shazam, the Apple application, purchased in 2018, has crossed a cape with more than 100 billion songs recognized by its users. Highlights include “Dance Monkey” by Tones and I which stands out as the most shazamed track, with over 45 million likes.
Shazam is essential!
Shazam was launched in 2002 as an SMS service in the United Kingdom. Back then, music fans would dial 2580, hold up their phone to identify the song, and receive the name of the song and artist via text message. Quite an era!
Shazam’s audience and influence continued to grow in the years that followed, but it was the launch of the App Store in 2008 and the launch of Shazam’s iOS app that brought millions of users to discover its music recognition technology. By the summer of 2011, Shazam had already recognized over a billion songs.
Here are the key figures shared by Apple:
- This equates to 12 songs identified for every person on Earth.
- A person would have to use Shazam to identify a song every second for 3,168 years to reach 100 billion.
- That’s more than 2,200 times the number of tags for the best Shazam song of all time, “Dance Monkey,” with more than 45 million tags.
- Shazam Predictions 2023 author Benson Boone’s song “Beautiful Things” was the first track released this year to reach 10 million likes, and the fastest, doing so in 178 days. At this rate, it would take more than 4,800 years to reach 100 billion.
Although Shazam is still available as a standalone app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, its integration into Apple’s ecosystem continues to grow the service. Users can now add a song recognition widget to their Control Center to identify music in apps or through their device’s microphone. For those with an iPhone 15 or newer, Shazam music recognition can be linked to the Action button for instant access. Others can also find Shazam’s home screen and lock screen widgets.
Additionally, with the introduction of watchOS 11, Apple Watch automatically includes a music recognition shortcut in the Smart Stack whenever it detects loud music nearby. Not a stupid apple!
Apple Music also integrates Shazam data into various playlists, including Radio Spins to track the most frequently played songs on radio stations.
Download the free app Shazam: Identify music
