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Spinning Christmas tunes last night through our Sonos made me wonder how Apple missed this huge opportunity. Looks like they’re trying to pick up their game with the acquisition of Shazam. Too little too late? Spotify, a small company that seemingly came out of nowhere has been able to amass 60 million streaming subscribers. Meanwhile, Apple, creator of the iPod and the unrivaled master of MP3s sat on its hands while streaming music proliferated. Now it’s playing catch up, with 30 million subscribers, Apple is well behind. Tripp Mickle writes that Apple may be able to use Shazam to close the gap:
The acquisition gives Apple ownership of an app that helps users identify unfamiliar songs. Users are often directed to listen to those songs at Apple Music or Spotify, helping those services possibly reach new subscribers. Such referrals could help Apple boost the number of subscribers to its streaming-music service from its current 30 million. Spotify AB says its service has 60 million paid subscribers.
Shazam, which made its debut as an app in 2008, also gives Apple access to extensive data and insight on people’s musical interests. It has been able to use its insights in the past to predict the “songs of summer,” insights gleaned from user searches that could help Apple put together playlists for streaming-music subscribers.
“If you have the direct integration of Shazam as part of Apple, and people find out what a song is [by] using Apple, then they go buy it using Apple. It creates a full ecosystem,” said Brian Zisk, the executive producer of the SF MusicTech Summit, an annual conference.
Read more here.
Originally posted at Yoursurvivalguy.com.
