Apple has congratulated Shazam on this achievement. Since its launch in 2002, Shazam has been used to identify 100 billion songs globally.
To put that in perspective, Apple says one person would need to use Shazam to identify a song every second for 3,168 years to reach 100 billion. That’s the equivalent of every person on Earth identifying 12 songs to reach that number.
"This incredible achievement not only shows how much people love Shazam, but also reflects their passion for music," Oliver Schusser, vice president of Apple Music and Beats, said in a press release.
Shazam launched in 2002, initially as an SMS service in the UK. Users would call 2580, hold their phone up to the speaker, and then receive the song name and artist via text message.
Six years later, Shazam launched its own iOS app. By 2011, Shazam had identified more than 1 billion songs.
Apple acquired Shazam in 2017 and integrated the app into its ecosystem in early 2018. Apple then integrated Music Recognition into iOS, allowing users to add a Shazam button to the control center.
In 2022, Apple celebrated Shazam's 20th birthday. At the time, Shazam had 225 million monthly users worldwide and had identified more than 70 billion songs.
To mark the 100 billion song milestone, Apple created a “Shazam's Top 100 Songs of All Time” playlist, which includes hits like “Dance Monkey” by Tones and I, “Counting Stars” by OneRepublic, and “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk.
