Apple Reportedly Working with Shazam on New iOS Song ID Feature

Apple rumors tend to vary wildly between fact and total fiction, but here's one of them we would certainly like to see: A partnership with Shazam to make it even easier to discover music with an iPhone.

Bloomberg today reported that Apple is working on a new song discovery feature for an upcoming iOS update that will allow iPhone or iPad users to identify a song just by having the device listen to it for a few seconds.

If that sound familiar, it should: An app called Shazam has long allowed for just such a feature, and Apple is said to be working in tandem with developer Shazam Entertainment Ltd. for the rumored feature.

The key difference is that downloading the Shazam app will no longer be required — instead, the technology will be baked right into iOS itself, much in the same way Apple has with Facebook, Twitter and Vimeo. This method would also allow Shazam's song identification technology to work with Siri, presumably by asking "What song is playing?".

Shazam and Apple spokespeople declined to comment on this enticing prospect, which could wind up being introduced as part of this year's iOS 8, expected to first be unveiled during Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in early June.

The same report closes with claims that Apple has already internally built a subscription-based music service similar to Spotify, Rdio and Beats Music, but one source claims Cupertino is hesitant to release it for fear of accelerating already declining download sales.

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