Shazam

The 5 best music apps for Apple Watch

Apple Watch Music Apps

When it comes to music, we all have our favorite artists, genres, and songs. And along with those, we have favorite apps for listening to those tunes we love.

If you’re an Apple Watch wearer, then keeping music apps on your wrist lets you listen on-the-go, control tunes on your iPhone, Mac, or PC, and identify songs you hear with a tap.

Not sure where to start? Here are the five best music apps for your Apple Watch, in no particular order.

How to get six months of Apple Music free, thanks to Shazam

Shazam Real-Time Song Lyrics Scrolling

Through New Year's Eve, you can get a six month subscription to Apple Music for free when using Apple's Shazam app. Apple's running a special promotion for Shazam users in the US, UK, and Canada - and they're even giving an incentive for folks with lapsed Apple Music memberships. Here's how the deal works.

Shazam is the app that identifies what music you're hearing. It's great for figuring out which tracks are playing in movies, advertising or when you're out and about and you hear a song you really love. Apple announced plans to acquire Shazam in 2017. Since then the software's been updated with new features and even went ad-free.

As reported by Macworld UK, this isn't the first time Apple's used Shazam to promote Apple Music - in fact, this promotion is similar to one that Apple offered over Black Friday. And just like then, if you've had an Apple Music subscription but you let it lapse, you can resubscribe and get three free months.

How to get six free months of Apple Music

1) Download and install Shazam from the App Store.

2) Tap on Shazam to open it.

3) Tap on the Library icon in the upper left hand corner.

4) Look in Recent Shazams for "Limited Time Only: Get up to 6 months free of Apple Music."

5) Tap on the Try Now button and sign up.

6) Tap on Try It Free. Tap on Confirm.

Bear in mind that you won't see the promotion if you're already an Apple Music subscriber, so if you're currently using Apple Music and you don't see this in your Recent Shazams library or anywhere else in the app, it's because Apple already knows you subscribe to Apple Music.

There's a loophole, however: If you cancel your subscription and then fire up Shazam, you should see the promotion, and then be eligible for the three-month restart deal. It's worth a try if you'd like to save yourself almost $30.

After the promotional period, Apple Music returns to its regular price: $9.99 per month, or $14.99 per month for a family subscription.

So did you get the free deal? Is it incentive enough for you to restart Apple Music after letting lapse? Sound off in the comments and let me know what you think.

How to get real-time song lyrics and sing along with Apple Music and Shazam

Lyrics in Apple Music and Shazam on iPhone

Getting lyrics to a song you love is easy with dedicated apps or even searching on Google. The problem is, if you're already listening to the song, you need to search through the lyrics to find the part of the song that's currently playing. Not always helpful, is it?

With the Apple Music app or the Shazam app, you can see the lyrics for most songs in real-time and sing along, karaoke style. This means that with a tap, you can be taken directly to the lyrics at that exact part of the song. In addition, the lyrics auto-scroll as the song plays so that you can sing along easier than ever!

EU regulators worried Apple-Shazam deal may hurt competition

The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it is going to "assess the acquisition of Shazam by Apple." The regulatory group says that multiple countries, including Austria, France and Spain, have requested that it review the recently announced deal for possible violation of EU antitrust laws.

Shazam for iPhone brings offline mode

Media identification service Shazam (soon to be Apple-owned) today updated its iPhone and iPad app in App Store, implementing a brand new offline mode which allows users to keep Shazaming even when they’re not connected to the Internet.