Apple Music Uses Shazam To Compensate Creators In DJ Mixes

Music streaming has become a giant industry in itself for the past few years, but there are still plenty of kinks to be ironed out in the prevalent business model. Proper compensation is always a thorny issue for music that's aired over the Internet. DJ mixes are even more problematic because they, well, mix content from different artists. That's a very niche but problematic area that Apple Music wants to specialize in, thanks to music-fingerprinting technology from Shazam.

Apple bought Shazam a while back, and it has integrated some of its features into iOS over the years. So far, however, Apple hasn't exactly taken advantage of Shazam's technology or used it for more than just identifying the music that's currently playing. That's finally changing as Apple Music moves to convince creators to patronize Apple's music streaming service over fierce rival Spotify.

TechCrunch reports on Apple Music's new process that applies Shazam's algorithms on DJ mixes. The idea is that the process will help companies involved to identify the original music used in those mixes and then divide streaming royalties between DJs, labels, and artists. This way, the original musicians won't have to worry about not getting paid for the use of their content in DJ mixes.

This is, of course, an attempt to entice DJs to try their luck on Apple Music. Where other live streaming platforms may flag mixes for copyright infringement, Apple Music instead encourages the proliferation of this special kind of dance music. To kick things off, Apple Music is adding Studio K7!'s DJ Kicks archive, containing mixes that haven't aired in almost two decades.

This, of course, gives Apple Music one edge over rival Spotify who has so far managed to keep the music streaming crown. That said, Apple Music's restrictions still apply, and ordinary people can't still upload user-generated content or UGC. Apple also hasn't revealed how royalties will be split between DJs and musicians, but it's still better than not getting any compensation at all or getting flagged for piracy.