Apple announced today that it closed its $400 million acquisition of music recognition app Shazam, a transaction initiated late last year. Shazam lets users identify songs simply by listening to the music playing around them. In a press release, Apple said it intends to offer its experience ad-free for all users “so everyone can enjoy the best of Shazam without interruption.”

“Apple and Shazam have a long history together. Shazam was one of the first apps available when we launched the App Store and has become a favorite app for music fans everywhere,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music. “With a shared love of music and innovation, we are thrilled to bring our teams together to provide users even more great ways to discover, experience and enjoy music.”

Shazam has been downloaded over 1 billion times around the world, and users identify songs using the Shazam app over 20 million times each day. With pioneering innovation in music identification, Shazam helps people discover, interact with and share video, audio or printed content across devices and mediums.

Apple didn’t reveal how it intends to integrate Shazam into its core Apple Music service, or whether it intends to continue operating it as a stand-alone service. The Cupertino-based company reportedly won out over rivals Spotify and Pandora/SiriusXM, who also expressed a desire to buy the company.

Shazam Entertainment Limited was founded in 1999 by Chris Barton, Philip Inghelbrecht, Avery Wang and Dhiraj Mukherjee. Barton and Inghelbrecht were students at the University of California at Berkeley, while Mukherjee was a London-based internet consultant at Viant. The trio immediately recruited Wang, a Stanford PhD, as chief scientist.  By 2013 Shazam was being touted as one of the top 10 most popular music apps in the world. Top management has turned over several times, with Wang the only surviving original member.

TechCrunch reports that Shazam was “ventured backed to the tune of $143 million… but has never managed to turn a profit.” With Apple — a company whose market cap hovers in the $1 trillion range — as its new owner, that really won’t matter.