Report: iPhone to Get Built-in Song Identification Features

Bloomberg is reporting that the next version of Apple’s iPhone software — iOS 8 — will bring with it the ability to tell you which song is playing within earshot. The feature will reportedly leverage Shazam technology, which is already available as a standalone song-identifying app on several platforms, including Apple’s.

Such a move would be a bit of catch-up for Apple, as similar song identifying features are baked into Android via the Google Now app — you can simply ask Google Now “What’s this song?” — as well as Windows Phone via Microsoft’s new Cortana personal assistant, which features a song-identification button.

Bloomberg merely cites a duo of unnamed “people with knowledge of the product,” so take this news with a grain of salt. However, this seems like a logical extension of Siri’s abilities — the report claims you’ll be able to ask Siri “what song is playing,” which would be similar to how the aforementioned Google Now functionality works — and it help pad Apple’s bottom line by providing direct access to music tracks for purchase through the iTunes store.

Apple is holding its annual developer conference from June 2 to June 6 — we’ll find out more then.

[Bloomberg]