Shazam has 478m users worldwide, profits up after Apple takeover

Audio-identifying app Shazam now has 478 million users around the world, it revealed in its latest financial report.

Covering the year until December 2018 and submitted to authorities earlier this week, it was a rise from 400 million in its previous year.

The amount of Australian users was not revealed.

The rest of the financials showed the impact of Apple’s US$400 million acquisition announced in September 2018.

Shazam posted a profit before taxation, of €144.3 million (A$262.5 million) after a €17.7 million ($32.2 million) loss the 12 months before.

Shazam said that “relates to the proceeds from the sale of intellectual property” and the “value attributed to the workforce of Shazam Media Services which was acquired by Apple.”

The UK company’s revenue fell to €31.4 million ($57.1 million) from €40.8 million ($74.2 million).

This might have had something to do with the fact that when Apple bought it over, it dropped ads from Shazam as a show of goodwill to users.

This year Apple Music has incorporated Shazam further into its operations.

Shazam data is used in Apple Music for Artists to provide more data and analytics for musicians.

The Shazam Discovery Top 50 reflects the latest new acts trending on the app.

The company stated that it “continued expanding the international distribution of its services with significant contracts with major brands and blue-chip companies”.

The October 9 report showed the Apple buy-out was completed on November 26, 2018.

Shazam counts over 20 million Shazams per day and over 1 billion downloads of the app across the world.