Shazam App is Now Ad-Free Following Apple Acquisition

Two and a half months after Apple announced the completion of its Shazam acquisition, the music recognition iOS app is now completely ad-free [Direct Link]. Previously, Shazam would present users with various border advertisements throughout the app, similar to most other ad-supported iOS apps, but as long as you are on version 12.5.1 you will no longer see any ads in Shazam.

The app still opens on the main "tap to Shazam" screen, where you can discover a song by allowing Shazam to listen to it. To the left of the main screen is the "My Shazam" area, where the app keeps a list of all the songs you have Shazamed recently. To the right of the main screen is Shazam's "Discover" tab with artist, song, and playlist recommendations, user posts, friend Shazams, and more.

Shazam finally going ad-free comes one year after Apple first announced its plans to acquire Shazam back in December 2017. At the time, Apple said, "Apple Music and Shazam are a natural fit," and that the two companies "have exciting plans in store." In September 2018, Apple completed the acquisition and said that the Shazam app would become ad-free soon.

In October 2018, Shazam began informing its users about the Apple acquisition and aligning its data privacy policies with those of Apple. Shazam has been built into Siri since iOS 8 and there are connections with Apple Music in the Shazam app, and Apple is expected to further integrate the music recognition service with its products down the line.

Tags: Apple acquisition, Shazam

Top Rated Comments

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Sovon Halder

10 months ago

I’m asking, “What does Shazam do that ‘Hey Siri, what’s this song?’ doesn’t do?”

What’s the point of another app? What am I missing?

You are missing these...

* The app is faster. Siri uses Shazam results anyways. With the app you don't have to ask Siri in front of other people which is embarrassing sometimes and in a crowded places, this helps a lot. And also the results are stored in playlist unlike Siri results.
* You can customise settings with the app, playlist and all that directly goes to apple music playlist automatically which is awesome. Play one song while listening for the next all without jumping between apps, unlike Siri.
* The discovery tab is pretty damn useful. Good recommendations there. Some 7-8 cards with good stuff.

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What's the point of Shazam Encore now? They still offer it at 2.99

I'd also like to know this.

Rating: 7 Votes

vertical smile

10 months ago

I’m asking, “What does Shazam do that ‘Hey Siri, what’s this song?’ doesn’t do?”

What’s the point of another app? What am I missing?

I’m not sure if Siri can do this, but I can use the Shazam app to look through my old shazamed songs.

I use the history feature a lot. You can also get lyrics instantly, I use that a lot too.

Rating: 5 Votes

AnthonyG6

10 months ago

I’m asking, “What does Shazam do that ‘Hey Siri, what’s this song?’ doesn’t do?”

What’s the point of another app? What am I missing?

Apart from being more discreet than Siri, the other reason I use Shazam over Siri and it is a key feature for me; is when my iPhone is connected to the car's bluetooth and a song is playing on the radio, asking Siri is not an option because as soon as you invoke Siri, the radio stops playing. In this case only Shazam will do.

Rating: 5 Votes

BeatCrazy

10 months ago

Why does anyone with iOS have any need for Shazam? What’s the point?

Sometimes I don't feel like shouting at Siri to ask her something. A simple tap within the Shazam app will suffice.

Rating: 4 Votes

fede777

10 months ago

What's the point of Shazam Encore now? They still offer it at 2.99

Rating: 3 Votes

n-evo

10 months ago

I’m asking, “What does Shazam do that ‘Hey Siri, what’s this song?’ doesn’t do?”

What’s the point of another app? What am I missing?

[LIST=1]
* Because talking to Siri isn't always the best of options when you're standing in a bar or club with loud music on and you want to know the song.
* Some prefer a GUI over Siri. As far as I know there's no way to trigger music recognition in iOS without Siri. As such you need the app.
* Many people downloaded (or bought) Shazam (Encore) years before Siri even existed.
* Not everyone owns an iPhone and as such don't have Siri
* A more visual list without having to dig around the iTunes Store

I'm sure there are some more.

Rating: 3 Votes

friednoodles

10 months ago

They'll use it to encourage more people to sign up to Apple Music.

But as long as its core functionality of recognising songs remains, that's all that matters to me. I'd prefer to eventually see promotion of Apple Music than seeing other random ads.

Rating: 3 Votes

cristianvaldez

10 months ago

I’m asking, “What does Shazam do that ‘Hey Siri, what’s this song?’ doesn’t do?”

What’s the point of another app? What am I missing?

Some people don’t want to ask Siri, and just tap to listen

Rating: 2 Votes

willmtaylor

10 months ago

I’m not sure if Siri can do this, but I can use the Shazam app to look through my old shazamed songs.

I use the history feature a lot. You can also get lyrics instantly, I use that a lot too.

If you open the iTunes Store and look in the top right corner and tap list, one of the lists is all the songs that Siri has looked up for you and a link to purchasing them in the iTunes Store.

I see the merit of having one’s search history and lyrics all in one app, I just don’t like having redundant apps when I can already do the same thing in iOS or with something I use so infrequently.

Choice is a good thing though.

Rating: 2 Votes

BeatCrazy

10 months ago

I suppose that’s fair. Though I never feel the need to shout at Siri, as I said, choice is a good thing.

Shouting = at a loud restaurant/bar where you want to ID a song.
Being discrete = ID a song playing in an elevator with 10 other people (yes this has happened to me)

Yes, choice is good :D

Rating: 2 Votes

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