Apple Music uses Shazam to distribute DJ session royalties more fairly

Apple’s music streaming service Music uses audio recognition app Shazam to identify individual tracks within a mixed live DJ session. This would allow royalties to be distributed more fairly.

With the Shazam integration, Apple says, according to TechCrunch, among others, it can enter into discussions with large and smaller labels to be able to divide the royalties more fairly between DJs, labels and artists. In this way, DJs should be able to offer their mixed sessions on streaming platforms, something that was previously difficult due to rights issues. The Shazam integration compares music within a mixing session to Apple Music’s library of 75 million songs.

The Verge notes that listeners also benefit from the Shazam integration. For example, subscribers can see the names of individual songs within a mix, which are then recognized by Shazam. Listeners should also be able to skip to subsequent tracks within a session, listen to the lossless audio playback ‘within most mixes’, and also save tracks offline.

Apple says it has brought more live DJ sessions to Music in recent months, and the company plans to do more in the future. This is how DJ-Kicks sessions from Studio K7 come to the streaming service. Engadget writes that Apple also wants to use the Shazam integration to more fairly distribute royalties for hip-hop remixes. Apple acquired Shazam in 2018.