Apple's Shazam Music Discovery Service Surpasses 1 Billion Shazams Per Month

Popular Apple-owned music discovery app and service Shazam is celebrating a new milestone today, surpassing more than 1 billion Shazams per month and a total of 50 billion tags since the app was first launched.

shazam

"Shazam is synonymous with magic," said Oliver Schusser, Apple's vice president of Apple Music and Beats, "both for the fans getting a song recognition almost instantly, and for the artists being discovered. With 1 billion recognitions a month, Shazam is one of the most popular music apps in the world. Today's milestones show not only people's love for Shazam, but also the ever-growing appetite for music discovery around the world."

Shazam launched as a text message service in 2002, but started seeing significant growth when the App Store launched in 2008, and with it, the Shazam app.

Shazam hit its first billion tags at the 10 year mark, but now less than 10 years after that, Shazam has successfully matched more than 50 billion tags with 51 million songs. The first Shazam result ever was "Jeepster" by T. Rex, and that result was delivered over a text message.

The 50 billionth milestone Shazamed song was Evangeline's Mandopop song "框不住的愛 (不插電版)," and Tone and I's "Dance Monkey" continues to be the most Shazamed track of all time.

Shazam is built right into Apple devices so you can ask Siri to identify a song, or you can access music recognition functionality through the Control Center on iPhone and iPad. There's also a Shazam app available from the ‌App Store‌.

Going forward, Apple is making a ShazamKit feature available to developers, allowing third-party apps to integrate Shazam's audio recognition technology into their apps. Apps will be able to match music to Shazam's song catalog, but it can also be used to match any prerecorded audio to custom results. Apple plans to release ShazamKit later this year.

Tag: Shazam

Popular Stories

AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2, AirPods Pro 3, and AirPods 4

Thursday November 13, 2025 11:35 am PST by
Apple today released new firmware designed for the AirPods Pro 3, the AirPods 4, and the prior-generation AirPods Pro 2. The AirPods Pro 3 firmware is 8B25, while the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 firmware is 8B21, all up from the prior 8A358 firmware released in October. There's no word on what's include in the updated firmware, but the AirPods Pro 2, AirPods 4 with ANC, and AirPods Pro 3...
CarPlay Pinned Messages

iOS 26.2 Adds New CarPlay Setting

Thursday November 13, 2025 6:48 am PST by
iOS 26 extended pinned conversations in the Messages app to CarPlay, for quick access to your most frequent chats. However, some drivers may prefer the classic view with a list of individual conversations only, and Apple now lets users choose. Apple released the second beta of iOS 26.2 this week, and it introduces a new CarPlay setting for turning off pinned conversations in the Messages...
iPhone Pocket Short

iPhone Pocket Now Available to Order, But Already Selling Out

Friday November 14, 2025 6:20 am PST by
Apple recently teamed up with Japanese fashion brand ISSEY MIYAKE to create the iPhone Pocket, a limited-edition knitted accessory designed to carry an iPhone. iPhone Pocket is available to order on Apple's online store starting today, in the United States, France, China, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. However, it is already completely sold out in the United...
tvOS 26 Profiles

tvOS 26.2 Adds a Useful New Feature to Your Apple TV

Friday November 14, 2025 10:02 am PST by
Starting with the upcoming tvOS 26.2 update, currently in beta, additional profiles created on the Apple TV no longer require their own Apple Account. In the Settings app on the Apple TV, under Profiles and Accounts, anyone can create a new profile by simply entering a name and indicating whether the profile is for a kid. The profile will be associated with the primary user's Apple Account,...
Tim Cook WWDC 2018

Report: Tim Cook to Step Down as Apple CEO 'as Soon as Next Year'

Saturday November 15, 2025 2:40 pm PST by
Apple is preparing for Tim Cook to step down as CEO of the company "as soon as next year," according to the Financial Times. The company's board of directors and senior executives "recently intensified preparations for Cook to hand over the reins," the report said. While the report said that Apple is unlikely to name a new CEO before its next earnings report in late January, it went on to ...
apple silicon mac lineup 2024 feature purple m5

Apple's 2026 Mac Plans

Friday November 14, 2025 3:23 pm PST by
Most of Apple's Macs are slated to get M5 chips across 2026, and there's a possibility we'll even see the first M6 chips toward the end of the year. Updates are planned for everything from the MacBook Air to the Mac Studio. MacBook Air (Early 2026) The MacBook Air will be one of the first Macs to get a 2026 refresh, with an update planned for the first few months of the year. The MacBook...
walmart new ornametns

Walmart Black Friday Deals Begin Today With Low Prices on Headphones, TVs, and More

Friday November 14, 2025 7:55 am PST by
Walmart's Black Friday sale has officially kicked off today, with an online shopping event that's also seeing some matching deals in retail locations. There are quite a few major discounts in this sale, including savings on headphones, TVs, and more. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Walmart. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us...
iOS 26

iOS 26.2 Available Next Month With These 8 New Features

Tuesday November 11, 2025 9:48 am PST by
Apple released the first iOS 26.2 beta last week. The upcoming update includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, including a new Liquid Glass slider for the Lock Screen's clock, offline lyrics in Apple Music, and more. In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 26.2 will be released to all users in December, but it did not provide a specific release date....
best early black friday deals

Best Black Friday Apple Deals Live Now - Save on AirPods, iPads, and Apple Watches

Saturday November 15, 2025 1:45 pm PST by
We're officially in the month of Black Friday, which will take place on Friday, November 28 in 2025. As always, this will be the best time of the year to shop for great deals, including popular Apple products like AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. In this article, the majority of the discounts will be found on Amazon. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When ...
homepod mini thumb feature

New HomePod Mini, Apple TV, and AirTag Were Expected This Year — Where Are They?

Wednesday November 12, 2025 11:42 am PST by
While it was rumored that Apple planned to release new versions of the HomePod mini, Apple TV, and AirTag this year, it is no longer clear if that will still happen. Back in January, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple planned to release new HomePod mini and Apple TV models "toward the end of the year," while he at one point expected a new AirTag to launch "around the middle of 2025." Yet,...

Top Rated Comments

pinsquid Avatar
58 months ago
Shazam was and still is responsible for me finding out the names of a lot of songs that would've otherwise gone unknown. Glad to see Apple allowing devs to integrate with a bit more.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
steevn Avatar
58 months ago
Integration into iOS has possibly been one of my favorite iOS features.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Unregistered 4U Avatar
58 months ago

Shazam was and still is responsible for me finding out the names of a lot of songs that would've otherwise gone unknown. Glad to see Apple allowing devs to integrate with a bit more.
Especially when it’s instrumental or the lyrics are unintelligible. :)
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Westside guy Avatar
58 months ago
"Surpasses 1 billion Shazams a month"? Marketspeak 1, English 0.

At least they didn't call them "Smurfs", I guess.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarpalMac Avatar
58 months ago
The funny thing is that Google had baked the same service into Android about 7+ years ago and worked brilliantly, linking to Google Play Music. A handy widget on the screen and two touches later I knew what a song was.

But, like so many things, they watered it down and then binned it off. At the very least buried it, I haven't seen it for ages, plus they killed Play Music for the dire YouTube Music.

When it comes to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, Google has it nailed. ?
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MauiPa Avatar
58 months ago
Shazam is awesome!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)