Apple is reportedly in the final stages of a deal with music discovery service Shazam.
According to initial reports from TechCrunch, the deal could be officially announced as soon as Monday. If it does go through, the acquisition price would be around $400 million, a figure that Recode shortly after. That's a significant discount for a company valued at around $1 billion.
Shazam, since its founding in 2002, has raised at least $140 million.
The reports of the company's acquisition follow previous rumors involving Snapchat. Snap struck a deal late last year that allowed Snapchatters to use Shazam to find song artists within the app. But in the end, it appears Apple won. It's unclear at this time whether the new deal will affect those older deals.
As for the reason behind the acquisition, there are no official statements yet – or any official confirmation from either party.
From Apple's perspective, the benefits will be many. The most obvious gain for Apple, although it seems small for a company as large as Apple, is that it will no longer pay commissions for users who are sent to iTunes to buy music through the service.
However, a more tangible benefit could come in the form of additional pressure on competing services like Spotify and Google Play Music. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Shazam sends about a million clicks a day to Spotify alone.
And as The Verge pointed out, the biggest benefits may be tied to the augmented reality technology that Shazam's platform is preparing.
Earlier this year, the company launched an AR platform based on a technology it introduced in 2015. This technology allows users to scan physical products like magazines, books, and advertisements to get additional information, much like Google Lens.
This could be a reaction by Apple to preempt features being prepared for the Pixel 2 that will heavily utilize Google Lens technology.
