Apple-owned music discovery app Shazam has launched national Top 200 charts in 17 new countries across Africa and Asia, including new city charts for each country.
Shazam’s Top 200 charts, which are updated daily, rank the most Shazamed tracks in a country for the past seven days.
Those 17 new countries include Algeria, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Philippines, Senegal, Tanzania, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zambia.
The service’s chart offering is now comprised of one global chart, 70 national charts, around 1,500 city charts, 30 Discovery charts, and about 60 global and national genre charts.
These are publicly available in the Shazam app and on its website.
Shazam, which was acquired by Apple for $400 million in 2018, holds a unique position in the global discovery of music.
Over 225 million monthly active users are discovering music via the app, and they’re now generating more than 1 billion song recognitions per month (and over 50 billion total since its inception in 2002).
Alongside the launch of the new charts, Apple Music tells MBW that, used as a discovery tool, Shazam has played a particularly key role in taking African artists to a global audience on its platform.
This discoverability, Apple Music tells MBW, has been driven by social media and viral challenges, combined with the launch of Shazam’s Control Center feature on iOS and iPadOS.
Apple Music cites a number of Shazam Global No. 1 singles to highlight this trend, including:
- Kizz Daniel & Tekno’s Buga ( May 15, 2022)
- Black Sherif’s Kwaku the Traveller (June 4 2022)
- Pheelz & BNXN fka Buju’s Finesse (July 3 2022)
- Goya Menor and Nektunez ‘s Ameno Amapiano (December 24 2021)
- Amaarae & Moliy Feat. Kali Uchis’s Sad Girlz Luv Money Remix (November 10 2021)
- CKay Feat. Axel & Dj Yo!’s love nwantiti [Remix] (October 9 2021)
- Master KG Feat. Nomcebo Zikode’s Jerusalema (July 9 2020).
Apple Music tells MBW that all of these Shazam Global No.1s were social media-driven and Shazam’s Control Center module was the most popular identification method on iOS at the height of their virality, with the exception of Jerusalema, which launched before the release of the feature but still benefitted from the virality of the #jerusalemachallenge.
After they started gaining traction on Shazam, all of these tracks then started to take off on the Apple Music platform globally.
For example, Wizkid’s Essence, featuring Tems, hit the Top 10 of the Daily Top 100 in 49 countries worldwide, including the United States, South Africa and Nigeria.
Fireboy DML’s Peru reached the Top 10 in 22 countries, including No.1 in Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana. Jerusalema, meanwhile has reached the Top 10 in 58 countries worldwide, including France, Italy, Belgium and Sweden.
Via a number of remixes, Love Nwantiti hit the upper reaches of Daily Top 100 charts across various countries across the globe.
The remix featuring Joeboy and Kuami Eugene reached the Top 10 in 61 countries, including India, Greece and Portugal. The remix featuring Axel and DJ Yo reached the top 10 in 63 countries including France, Sweden, Switzerland and New Zealand.
Love Nwantiti has reached the Top 10 of Apple Music’s Daily Top 100 in 91 countries worldwide, including France, Greece, India and Belgium.
Apple Music tells MBW that a number of songs by Africa-based artists also reached “global hit status” after being featured on major editorial playlists on the Apple Music platform, including Today’s Hits, Viral Hits, R&B Now, Afrobeats Hits and Songs of the Summer.
For example, in the six months after Love Nwantiti was placed on Today’s Hits, Apple Music says that the song saw a nearly 8,000% increase in plays on Apple Music worldwide. The song hit the Top 30 of the Global Daily Top 100 in October 2021.
Elsewhere at Shazam, in March, the app added new concert discovery features to its platform, which, it says, will make it easy for users to explore upcoming live music shows and increase exposure for artists.
In September, Apple Music revealed that it is now using Shazam technology to identify tracks in DJ Mixes.Music Business Worldwide
