Tech giant Apple has announced that music recognition platform Shazam has surpassed 200 million monthly active users globally, and in celebration, Apple Music has published the Top 100 Shazams of All Time.
BBC News reports that Apple acquired Shazam for $400 million in 2018, and at the time it had 478 annual active users, up 400 million from 2017.
Shazam works by analysing the unique sonic fingerprint of a tune, which it then matches to its enormous music database to provide the user with a match. The service launched in 2002, then called ‘2580’, which was the number that users needed to dial to access it.
At that time, it had a database of a mere one million songs and took 15 seconds to process a users request, sending the result back via text message. 18 years later, it takes as little as 2 seconds to search its database of tens of millions of songs and can cope with remixes, background noise, and cover versions.
Since Apple acquired the technology, it has been integrated into iPhones and iPads, a Shazam button can be added to the control centre, and “Hey Siri, what song is this?” requests are powered by Shazam.
Shazam published a weekly list of the most Shazamed tracked in 2019, but now Apple Music has launched the top 100 most Shazamed songs of all time in a playlist.
Dance Monkey by Australian artist Tones and I gets the top spot, with 36.6 million Shazams since its May 2019 release.
A note attached the playlist on Apple Music’s website reads: “Tones and I’s powerhouse pop single ‘Dance Monkey’ tops the all-time list, with over 36.6 million Shazams since its release in May 2019, followed by Lilly Wood & The Prick & Robin Schulz’s ‘Prayer In C (Robin Schulz Radio Edit)’ and Passenger’s ‘Let Her Go’ closing the top 3.”
Oliver Schusser, Vice President, Apple Music, Beats, and International Content said that Apple Music and Shazam offer music fans all around the world a seamless experience.
“Looking back at our long history together, we can only see how close our missions have been: bringing the best home for music lovers and creators everywhere,” he said.
Dance Monkey spent 11 weeks at number one in the UK at the end of last year and topped the charts in 29 other countries. It also holds the record for the most Shazamed song in a single day.
Tones And I, the stage name of singer-songwriter Toni Watson, said the app had been invaluable for her career.
“Shazam has been a huge platform for me in terms of reaching people. I didn’t have a following when I released Dance Monkey, but it gave me the opportunity to reach more people and elevate my fan-base, which has all let to creating a career for myself,” she said
She added that Shazam is a great app for helping unknown artists connect with an audience.
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