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Music Identification App Shazam Surpasses 100 Billion Recognitions

22 years it was first launched in the U.K., ubiquitous music identification app Shazam has announced it has now surpassed 100 billion recognitions.

First launching on Aug. 19 2002, Shazam began its life as an SMS service where users would dial a number, hold up their phones to identify the song being played, and then receive the name and artist via a text message. While it grew in popularity and influence over the years, it was in 2006 that Shazam was launched as an app, before becoming available on both Apple and Android devices in 2008.

By 2011, the service had recognized more than one billion songs, and by the following year, that number had increased to five billion, with the 15 billion milestone following in 2014. In 2017, it was announced that Apple had acquired Shazam for $400 million.

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Now, Apple have announced that Shazam has hit the impressive milestone of 100 billion song recognitions across its lifetime. The news comes just five years after the service celebrated 20 years with news it had surpassed 70 billion recognitions.

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“This monumental milestone not only reflects how much people enjoy using Shazam, but also their appetite for new music,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and Beats in a stateent.

“Music discovery is at the core of everything we do, and we keep innovating to make sure music lovers around the world can tap the Shazam button no matter where they hear music playing!”

Apple have also shared a handful of statstics to put the 100 billion figure into perspective, noting that the number is equivalent to 12 songs identified for every person on Earth, and that one person would need to use Shazam to identify a song every second for 3,168 years to reach 100 billion.

An Apple Music playlist was also created by the company which features the 100 most-Shazamed songs across the app’s lifetime.

Atop the list is Tones and I’s “Dance Monkey” with 45 million identifications to its name, closely followed by fellow Australian act Gotye and his 2012 Kimbra-featuring hit “Somebody That I Used to Know”.

Passenger’s “Let Her Go”, Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect”, and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “Can’t Hold Us” round out the top five, with acts such as Lewis Capaldi, Hozier, The Weeknd, KALEO, and Sia completing the top ten.

‘Shazam’ Actor Zachary Levi Endorses Donald Trump, Xitter Preps Cancellation

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Harold And The Purple Crayon Library Of Congress Clips And Conversation With Zachary Levi And Zooey Deschanel

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Shazam star Zachary Levi endorsed Donald Trump at an event supporting his presidential campaign, drawing sharp criticism from many people on social media.

Last Saturday(September 28), Shazam star Zachary Levi threw his weight behind Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. The actor was moderating a talk with former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard at an event supporting Trump held in Dearborn, Michigan. Before the interview began, he said: “We’re here to make sure that we are going to take back this country. We are going to make it great again. We are going to make it healthy again. And so, I stand with Bobby, and I stand with Tulsi, and I stand with everyone else who is standing with President Trump.”

“In a perfect world, in whatever that would look like, perhaps I would have voted for Bobby,” Levi continued. “But we don’t live in a perfect world. In fact, we live in a very broken one. We live in a country that has been hijacked by a lot of people who want to take this place way off the cliff, and we’re here to stop that.” Toward the end of the conversation with RFK Jr. and Gabbard who are part of the “Team Trump” campaign team, the 44-year-old actor admitted that his public endorsement of the former president could damage his career, but he was raised to “have a healthy distrust of the government” and that Trump represents what he wants to support. “Within my industry, as you can probably imagine, Hollywood is a very, very liberal town and this very well could constitute career suicide, so I’m glad I did it with you guys,” he said to the crowd.

Levi, who gained fame in the Chuck television series and joined the DC Universe as Shazam with two films in 2019 and 2023. It is undetermined if he’ll return to the role with new DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran in charge. He’s been open about his political views, declaring that he was a “libertarian” in a post on X, formerly Twitter in 2020. He’s also garnered criticism for those views, particularly concerning the COVID-19 vaccines last year. The responses to Levi’s endorsement on social media ranged from disappointment to dismissal, with many likening him to another controversial actor, Gina Carano.

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Kavinsky’s ‘Nightcall’ Sees Streaming Surge After 2024 Olympics Closing Ceremony Performance

In the wake of a 2024 Olympics Closing Ceremony that dealt heavily in French indie and electronic music, one of the featured songs — Kavinsky‘s 2010 electronic classic “Nightcall” — has experienced a major streaming surge.

On Saturday (Aug. 10), the day before the Closing Ceremony was held in Paris, “Nightcall” had 281,000 total global on-demand streams, according to Luminate. The day of the performance on Sunday (Aug. 11), the track clocked 358,000 global on-demand streams. And on Monday (Aug. 12), the day after the ceremony, the track surged to 789,000 global on-demand streams — a 120.2% increase over the day prior. On Tuesday (Aug. 13), the song maintained its momentum, with 897,000 total global on demand streams.

“Nightcall” is the title track from Kavinsky’s 2010 EP and was written by French producer and Daft Punk member Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo; the track also features heavily on the soundtrack for the 2011 film Drive. Kavinsky played the song during a Closing Ceremony performance that also presented French indie outfit Phoenix, French indie electronic duo Air and a medley of covers of tracks by French electronic duo Justice.

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According to data provided to Billboard by Shazam, “Nightcall” also generated the most Shazamed minute ever for the app at 4:50 p.m. ET on Sunday when Kavinsky was performing the song. (The top three Shazaming countries during this minute were France, the United States and Mexico.) This topped the record set by “Supernature,” the 1977 track by French disco legend Cerrone, during the 2024 Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony on July 26. 

“Nightcall” also broke the record for the most Shazamed song in a single day ever, followed by two Phoenix tracks performed at the Closing Ceremony: “Lisztomania” and “If I Ever Feel Better.”

The bump also crossed continents: Shazam reports that Closing Ceremony performer Billie Eilish had her biggest day ever on the app after she performed “Birds of a Feather.”



The Deals: Ticketmaster Integrates With Shazam, Beatport Gets Fraud Detection Partner

Ticketmaster partnered with Shazam for a deal allowing artists to link to their Ticketmaster-listed events directly in the Shazam app. Through that integration, Shazam users will be able to see where that artist is playing and buy tickets to their show “with just a few clicks” after Shazaming their music, according to a Ticketmaster blog post. The ticketing giant previously announced similar integrations with TikTok and Snapchat.

Fraud detection company Beatdapp Software partnered with Beatport, a digital service that offers high-quality downloads for DJs to use in live sets, in a deal that aims to banish fraudulent activities on Beatport by integrating Beatdapp’s fraud detection technology into the platform. “We launched streaming products under the Beatport and Beatsource brands in 2019, and despite the fact that they have not historically been a target for streaming fraud, suspicious activity has been on the rise in recent months,” said Helen Sartory, chief revenue officer of The Beatport Group, in a statement. “Although our fraud rates still remain half that of the industry average, we rely on accurate streaming data not only to preserve fair compensation to artists and labels, but also for track recommendations and analytics. We are excited to be able to work with Beatdapp to ensure that our data is representative of authentic listener engagement.”

Virgin Music Group announced a “strategic relationship” with Frontier Works, a Japanese animation-related content production company, to release anime music projects. Virgin will provide Frontier Works with access to its music distribution and marketing platform and global team to support Frontier releases worldwide. This includes Virgin’s AI-driven music marketing technology, which filters streaming data “to create dynamic and actionable insights,” as well as “Smart Audience,” an advertising platform that uses “ethical AI” to increase fan engagement and help drive streaming consumption, according to a press release.

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Believe acquired a 25% stake in Global Records, an independent dance music company covering Central and Eastern Europe, and signed a strategic partnership with the label. The acquisition expands Believe and Global Records’ existing relationship, which since 2016 has allowed the latter to ramp up its territorial expansion and catalog development, according to a press release. Global Records’ catalog racked up more than 6 billion streams across all platforms last year alone and has seen more than 20 billion streams to date, the release adds. Global’s roster includes INNA, Minelli, Carla’s Dreams, Antonia and Holy Molly; it has offices in Germany, Romania and the United States.

Artist manager Matt Musacchio‘s Champ Management partnered with Red Light Management in a deal that brings Vincent Mason, Jessie James Decker and Dawson Anderson to the Red Light roster. Kyle Marsh will also join the Red Light team as a day-to-day manager.

ASM Global expanded its reach into Portugal by taking on the operation of two venue spaces located in Lisbon’s LX Factory, which is located inside a converted factory complex in the Alcantara area. ASM Global will additionally manage the venues’ adjacent outdoor bar, terrace and gallery spaces.

Web3 creator platform DRiP acquired limited-edition music platform Vault Music. Both platforms are on the Solana blockchain. Under the deal, all Vault Music drops and users will transition to the DRiP platform. “Vault was our first music partner on DRiP,” said CEO Vibhu Norby in a statement on the acquisition. “They did a phenomenal job harboring musicians from outside of the existing ecosystem, and we’re excited to help them continue that effort.”

ADA Canada signed a global distribution deal with country music label MCM Recordings, which is home to Jess Moskaluke, Charlie Major and The Redhill Valleys.

The Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) extended its agreement with the International Copyright Enterprise (ICE) for several more years. According to a press release, the extended deal “will facilitate faster royalty payments to IMRO members for online performances of their works and enhanced usage transparency.” The release claims IMRO’s online revenue saw 30% growth in 2023.

Independent dance music label Armada Music signed a long-term partnership with Amsterdam-based DJ and producer KI/KI and her self-founded label, slash. Armada will work with KI/KI and her team on A&R, label management, distribution and promotion/marketing for upcoming slash releases. The first release under the joint venture is KI/KI’s latest EP, slash 010.

Shazam Adds New ‘Concerts’ Section to Recommend Shows to Users

Apple-owned Shazam has introduced a new feature into its music identification app that will allow users to find nearby shows through recommendations based on their Shazam histories, it was announced on Wednesday (Oct. 25).

The new feature, called simply Concerts, is already available to users in the Shazam app on iOS within the “My Music” section and will be coming to Android shortly. The new section will recommend events, allow users to save and set reminders about upcoming shows and view available tickets, with options to buy them through BandsInTown or other ticket providers. It also offer exclusives from certain artists that will be available for users to unlock, such as behind the scenes videos, Apple Watch faces, tour photos and setlists, among other things.

The feature has also been incorporated into Spotlight, where iPhone users can now search for an artist and get concert and ticketing information immediately in iOS 17. Along with additions to Apple Maps and the Set Lists feature within Apple Music, this marks the latest Apple feature to incorporate live music data and information into its functionality. 

The Concerts feature follows on a previous collaboration with BandsInTown that was initially announced in March 2022. Through that partnership, Shazam users could search for an artist and pull up their forthcoming tour information using the BandsInTown database of shows for over 500,000 artists. This new feature is distinct from that, in that it boasts its own section within Shazam dedicated to concerts and show recommendations, rather than solely within the search result for an artist.

Apple Music Launches New Concert Discovery Features

Apple Music wants to guide you to your next concert.

On Tuesday (May 16), the platform launched a pair of new live music discovery tools intended to deliver users to global shows. The first of these tools lives on Apple Maps, where the service has launched guides for 14 global cities — Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York City, San Francisco, Berlin, London, Paris, Vienna, Tokyo, Melbourne, Sydney and Mexico City.

Curated by Apple Music editors, the city guides are intended to inform nights out and include features that allow fans to browse each venue’s concert calendar via Maps, utilizing the Apple-owned Shazam technology as well as information from Bandsintown. The guides will focus on a spectrum of scenes and genres, from Viennese symphonies to Tokyo techno.

The second tool, which lives on Apple Music, is called Set Lists and focuses on a collection of large-scale tours, providing information about the show’s production and generating streams via playlists based on recent set lists from these tours. Users can also browse upcoming shows in their area via Shazam’s concert discovery module.

With the launch of these two features, Apple Music is leveraging other Apple-owned tech to lean into the live space. Spotify similarly dipped its toes into touring and live music last June when it launched a set of new features focused on making it easier for listeners to find artists’ upcoming tour dates in the app. That was followed by the launch of Spotify Tickets, which sells concert tickets directly to fans.

See images from both new tools below.

Apple Music

Apple Music

Apple Music

Apple Music

Ice Spice, Rosa Linn & More Among Shazam’s 2023 Breakthrough Predictions

Shazam unveiled its annual predictions playlist on Wednesday (Jan. 4), compiling a 50-track selection of artists who have the potential to have a breakthrough year.

Based on the music discovery app’s predictive data and algorithms and in collaboration with Apple Music’s global editorial team, this year’s selection of artists show early indicators of future growth, including consistent momentum in Shazam activity, as well as discovery trends in more than one country.

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Ice Spice, Rosa Linn, Charlieonnafriday, Young Miko and Benson Boone top Shazam’s artists with global breakthrough potential. “It’s very cool to me that people from all around the world can discover my music through [Shazam],” Rosa Linn told Apple Music per a press release. “They can hear the song, like it, and instantly find out that it’s me who is singing it. I gain fans and listeners and it directly impacts streaming.”

“Shazam has always been so useful for me whenever I needed to find the title of a song playing,” Ice Spice added. “I’m happy that it exists!”

Additionally, for the first time, Shazam is spotlighting artists who are gaining popularity regionally. Nigeria’s Carterefe, France’s Adé, Japan’s natori, Colombia’s KEITYN and Spain’s Munic HB have all made the list due to their budding stardom. “I believe Shazam is an important gateway for my music to be discovered, especially in this busy lifestyle we live in,” natori, whose “Overdose” was the most-Shazamed debut single within J-Pop over the last year, told Apple Music.

Listen to the Shazam Predictions 2023 playlist exclusively on Apple Music worldwide at apple.co/shazampredictions23