Apple has confirmed it plans to buy UK-based music recognition app Shazam.

The deal, said to be in the region of $400 million (£299.6m), would make it one of Apple’s bigger acquisitions. 

In a statement, Apple said: “We are thrilled that Shazam and its talented team will be joining Apple. Since the launch of the App Store, Shazam has consistently ranked as one of the most popular apps for iOS. Today, it’s used by hundreds of millions of people around the world, across multiple platforms.

“Apple Music and Shazam are a natural fit, sharing a passion for music discovery and delivering great music experiences to our users. We have exciting plans in store, and we look forward to combining with Shazam upon approval of today’s agreement.”

Shazam already functions with Apple Music and the Siri voice assistant, and the acquisition looks set to bolster Apple’s position in the voice control market, where Amazon and Google appear to be stealing a march on the tech giant.

The Shazam deal was widely trailed in the media over the weekend.

The company splashed out $3 billion (£2.25 billion) for Beats Electronics in 2014 in preparation for the launch of Apple Music, but most of the tech giant's deals are not on that scale.

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