Music recognition app Shazam has been recognized more than 100 billion times

Twenty-two years after it was first launched in the UK, ubiquitous music recognition app Shazam has announced that it has been recognized more than 100 billion times.

Shazam was first launched on August 19, 2002, as a text messaging service that allowed users to dial a number, hold up their phone to identify the song that was playing, and receive the name and artist via text message. Although Shazam’s popularity and influence grew every year, it wasn’t until 2006 that Shazam was launched as an app, and in 2008 it became available on Apple and Android devices.

By 2011, the service had identified more than 1 billion songs, and by the next year, that number had grown to 5 billion, reaching the 15 billion milestone in 2014.

Now, Apple has announced that Shazam has reached the impressive milestone of 100 billion song recognitions during its lifetime. Just five years ago, the service celebrated its 20th anniversary, with news that it had surpassed 70 billion recognitions.

“This monumental milestone reflects not only how much people love Shazam, but also their interest in new music,” Oliver Schusser, vice president of Apple Music and Beats, said in a statement.

“Music discovery is at the core of everything we do, and we’re constantly innovating to ensure music lovers around the world can click the Shazam button wherever they hear music playing!”

Apple also shared some statistics to put the 100 billion number into perspective, noting that this number equates to 12 songs for every person on the planet, and that a person would need to Shazam one song 3,168 times per second. .

The company also created an Apple Music playlist containing the 100 most Shazamed songs during the app’s lifetime.

Topping the list is Tones and I’s “Dance Monkey,” whose name has been recognized 45 million times, followed by Australian actor Gotye and his 2012 hit “Somebody That I Old” featuring Kimbra. to Know》.

Passenger’s “Let Her Go,” Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect,” and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “Can’t Hold Us” round out the top five, with Lewis Capaldi, Hozier, The Weeknd, KALEO and Sia rounding out the top five and other artists also ranked among the top five.