Apple partners with Shazam to solve DJs’ problems with the industry

Music creators won’t have difficulty retaining long-term monetary value anymore, as Apple Music just announced that a process has been put together to help pinpoint and reimburse DJs involved in producing a music mix.

With the help of the audio-identifier app Shazam, which Apple bought back in 2018 for a value of $400 million, Apple Music is currently utilizing independent labels to introduce an equitable method to divide streaming royalties among all the artists who worked on the DJs’ mixes.

Hence, musicians can now get compensated for their music even when other artists iterate on it.

There’s a reason why YouTube or Twitch users don’t host many DJs’ in their stream mixes online, as streaming platforms might potentially flag the use of other artists’ music due to copyright reasons.

However, we’ve all heard music in festivals or events that have been remixed and edited together into something unrecognizable, which further complicates the process of copyright as artists cannot keep track of which sample has used their music.

Now, the tech giant can tell you exactly which song is playing during a festival even as DJs blend different sounds by utilizing Apple Music’s database of more than 75 million songs.

“Apple Music is the first platform that offers continuous mixes where there’s a fair fee involved for the artists whose tracks are included in the mixes and for the artist making those mixes. It’s a step in the right direction where everyone gets treated fairly,” DJ Charlotte de Witte said in a statement, according to TechCrunch. “I’m beyond excited to have the chance to provide online mixes again.”

Apple was already contemplating adding mixes throughout last year, including music of some of the biggest names in the industry, such as Charlotte de Witte, Tiësto, Carl Cox, and several other musicians.

“Through the partnership with Apple, we finally have a place to celebrate DJ-Kicks with additional 14 editions which have not been in the market for over 15 years,” Studio K7! founder Horst Weidenmueller told The Verge.