In an expansion of Shazam integration with Apple Music, Apple has debuted a new Shazam Discovery Top 50 chart to enhance user discovery of new and trending music.
The Shazam Discovery Top 50 list will be populated by trending tracks and artist searches using Shazam in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain, the UK, and the U.S. The playlist will be featured in every country that Apple Music is available.
To populate the list, Apple is using more than 20 million Shazam queries per day. The playlist will update every Tuesday, and is rolling out to all users now.
Shazam started life in the UK in 1999 as a product called 2580, named after the number users had to dial to reach the service via text. Since its debut on the iOS App Store, and subsequently Mac App Store, Shazam has evolved into a comprehensive audio fingerprinting service that allows users to identify songs, movies, TV shows and other media by capturing short audio segments.
Word first surfaced in December 2017 that Apple was close to buying Shazam. It was said that the price was about $401 million -- a significant discount from the $1 billion the company was valued at in its last funding round in 2015.
The deal concluded in September 2018.
"Apple and Shazam have a long history together. Shazam was one of the first apps available when we launched the App Store and has become a favorite app for music fans everywhere," said Oliver Schusser, Apple's vice president of Apple Music when the deal for the purchase was concluded. "With a shared love of music and innovation, we are thrilled to bring our teams together to provide users even more great ways to discover, experience and enjoy music."
Currently, Shazam features integration with a number of music services, including iTunes and Apple Music. While iTunes hooks feature simple track purchasing options, Apple Music subscribers can use Shazam to quickly add identified songs and to a customized playlist.