Whether you’ve been guilty of it yourself or silently judged someone for doing it, holding up Shazam at a concert can be a sometimes embarrassing experience. That being said, pretty much everyone has done it at some point and often times you just need to figure out what that song is! Perhaps you’ve just forgotten the title or artist, or it’s a new song you just need to have in your playlists, Shazam is often the quickest way to identify what a song is out in the wild outside of just asking someone next to you.
Last week, Shazam celebrated its 20th birthday, which seems impossible. But yes, it really has been around since 2002, pre-dating the first iPhone by about five years. The app is used by more than 225 million global monthly users and has officially surpassed 70 billion song recognitions, making it an undisputed mainstay in music culture.
Masked Wolf, who was one of Shazam’s 5 Artists to Watch in 2021 and ended up having the most Shazamed track globally that year with “Astronaut In The Ocean,” said, “The fact that people all over the world took time out of their day to pull out their phone and Shazam my songs is a huge honor for me as an artist. You know you’ve got something special if you see the Shazam stats moving.”
Check out the official 20 Years Of Shazam Hits playlist from Apple Music below, and keep scrolling for important dates, notable firsts, and breakdowns by genre.
Important Dates
- August 2002: Shazam launches as a text message service based in the UK. At the time, users could identify songs by dialing “2580” on their phone and holding it up as a song played. They were then sent an SMS message telling them the song title and the name of the artist.
- July 2008: Shazam launches on the brand-new App Store. Shazam later launched its Android version in October 2008.
- April 2015: Shazam becomes available on the first Apple Watch.
- September 2018: Shazam joins the Apple family.
- June 2021: Shazam surpasses 1 billion Shazams per month.
- May 2022: Shazam surpasses 2 billion lifetime installs.
- August 2022: Shazam celebrates 20 years of music discovery and hits 70 billion all-time Shazams.
Notable Firsts
- First-ever Shazamed song: “Jeepster” by T. Rex (April 19, 2002)1
- First Shazamed song on the iOS app: “How Am I Different” by Aimee Mann (July 10, 2008)
- First track to reach 1,000 Shazams: “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” by Eminem (September 2002)
- First track to reach one million Shazams: “TiK ToK” by Ke$ha (February 2010)
- First track to reach 10 million Shazams: “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye feat. Kimbra (December 2012)
- First track to reach 20 million Shazams: “Prayer In C (Robin Schulz Radio Edit)” by Lilly Wood & The Prick and Robin Schulz October 2015)
- First artist to hit 1 million Shazams: Lil Wayne (February 2009)
- First artist to hit 10 million Shazams: Lil Wayne (June 2011)
- First artist to hit 100 million Shazams: David Guetta (May 2015)
Fastest Tracks to Accumulate Shazams
- Fastest track to reach 1 million Shazams: “Butter” by BTS (nine days)
- Fastest track to reach 10 million Shazams: “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran (87 days)
- Fastest track to reach 20 million Shazams: “Dance Monkey” by Tones And I (219 days)
Most Shazamed of All Time
- Drake is the most Shazamed artist of all time with over 350 million Shazams across songs the artist has led or featured on. “One Dance” is Drake’s most popular track at over 17 million Shazams.
- “Dance Monkey” by Tones And I is the most Shazamed song ever with over 41 million Shazams.
- “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley was the most Shazamed song using the “2580” text service.
Top Shazamed Songs by Genre
- Top Hip-Hop/Rap: “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis feat. Ray Dalton
- Top Dance: “Prayer In C (Robin Schulz Radio Edit)” by Lilly Wood & The Prick and Robin Schulz
- Top R&B/Soul: “All of Me” by John Legend
- Top Latin: “Mi Gente” by J Balvin and Willy William
- Top Pop: “Let Her Go” by Passenger
- Top Alternative: “Dance Monkey” by Tones And I
- Top Singer/Songwriter: “Take Me to Church” by Hozier
