Apple buys music discovery app Shazam
Apple on Monday confirmed it has bought Shazam, the music app that can identify a song by hearing just a snippet of it. The acquisition boosts Apple's position in the music world and advances its artificial intelligence efforts. It did not share further details about the agreement, but TechCrunch website reported that the deal is valued at US$400 million (S$540 million).
Shazam, launched in 1999, claims that at least one billion people have downloaded its app and used it to identify songs at least 30 billion times.
U2 knock Taylor Swift off No. 1 spot
The arrival of Taylor Swift's Reputation on streaming services was no match for a good old-fashioned album from U2. The Irish band's new release, Songs Of Experience, toppled Swift's three-week reign at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, even though Reputation got a boost when it was made available to stream on all services on Dec 1.