The Music Wars Continue as Apple Reportedly Plans to Buy Shazam

Updated Dec. 12: 

Apple and Shazam confirmed the merger on Monday, Dec. 11. 

“We have exciting plans in store, and we look forward to combining with Shazam upon approval of today’s agreement,” according to an official spokeswoman.

TechCrunch also reported that Snap Inc. and Spotify were in talks to purchase Shazam, but ultimately lost out to Apple's deep pockets. 

Original, Published Dec. 10: 

Apple isn't sitting around licking their wounds after YouTube's big music streaming service announcement. They've had a trick up their sleeves all the while: Reportedly acquiring Shazam for $400 million. 

Shazam, which launched in 1999, can identify music from the radio, TV commercials and movies from the palm of your hand. By purchasing the app, Apple can improve their search functionality in Apple Music (that's right, we won't be beholden to Siri's poor search results much longer...). 

In fact, Apple's big buy may be more artificial intelligence-driven than musically inclined. Although Apple seemingly pioneered a wave of interactive digital assistants with Siri, the sheer prominence of Alexa and highly advanced user experience of Google Assistant has caused Apple to fall quite behind in accurate, engaging AI.

In fact, Amazon's Echo and Google Assistant easily help users navigate the world, learn information -- and buy products -- in a fashion Siri just can't replicate at its current level of design. Marrying Shazam's technology with Siri may be the boost they desperately need to stay in the tech race. 

In addition, the acquisition will hinder the music streaming competition, as Shazam currently drives traffic to competitors such as Spotify and Google Play.

According to TechCrunch, the deal may be signed, sealed and delivered as soon as this week. 

Apple Music isn't the only streaming service clapping back and grasping for users, either. Spotify is currently searching for more funding, and are eyeing going public -- with or without an IPO. 

So what can we expect to see going forward? Well, for starters, we predict that the relationship between Apple and Shazam will become official in the very near future, and some long-overdue tech updates shortly following (likely, Apple will somewhat model after Google Pixel 2's automatic song identification).

After that? Well, the music war of streaming services is on.  

Do you think Apple could benefit from buying Shazam? Tell us how below!

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