Shazam, the popular music recognition app, has officially reached an extraordinary milestone—over 100 billion song recognitions since its inception.
The scale of Shazam’s accomplishment is staggering. With a global population of over 8 billion, the app’s usage averages out to about 12 song identifications per person on Earth. For context, a person would need to Shazam a song every second for more than 3,100 years to hit 100 billion recognitions.
Among its most significant moments, Shazam’s most recognized track, “Dance Monkey” by Tones and I, has been tagged over 45 million times—a fraction of the app’s total achievements but still a testament to its influence in driving music discovery.
Shazam’s influence extends beyond identifying songs—it plays a pivotal role in highlighting emerging music trends. For instance, Benson Boone’s track “Beautiful Things” was the first song of 2023 to hit 10 million recognitions, achieving this feat in just 178 days.
At that pace, it would take nearly 4,800 years for the song to reach Shazam’s total milestone, illustrating the sheer scale of the app’s usage.
“This monumental milestone not only reflects how much people enjoy using Shazam, but also their appetite for new music,” said Apple’s Vice President of Apple Music and Beats, Oliver Schusser.
Shazam launched in 2002 as an SMS-based service in the UK. Users dialed a number, held their phones up to music, and received song information via text message. The app’s breakthrough came in 2008 with the launch of its iOS app on the Apple App Store. By 2011, Shazam had already recognized over 1 billion songs.
You can listen to Shazam’s top 100 songs of all time on Apple Music.
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