Apple Reportedly Buying Shazam for $400 Million

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It appears Apple is planning to acquire Shazam, the song-recognition app, in a deal which could be finalized in a matter of days.

TechCrunch on Friday afternoon reported Apple is eyeing the purchase and hopes to sign a deal by the end of this week, with an announcement coming next week, perhaps as soon as Monday. 

Following that initial report, Recode noted Apple is said to be spending around $400 million in the deal, citing two people familiar with the ongoing discussions.

The benefits of such a deal are obvious, as Apple currently pays Shazam a commission for the users the latter directs from its app to iTunes or Apple Music. According to The Wall Street Journal, those fees made up a majority of Shazam's revenue in 2016. The company also drove 10% of all digital download sales.

An Apple-Shazam merger would also most certainly hurt competitors such as Google Play Music and Spotify, the latter of which has an existing partnership with Shazam. Snapchat also has a deal to integrate Shazam into its camera. It's unclear how those deals would be affected.

A spokesperson for Shazam wasn't immediately available for comment. Apple's rep declined to comment on the report.