The European Union has banned Shazam.

The Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, which contains the controversial Article 13, is a major new reform on copyright law which aims to spread digital profits more evenly and make it harder for big tech firms to capitalise on creators' content.



It was passed in EU parliament on Tuesday, backed by support from major record labels like Sony and Universal, who often own the rights to music distributed illegally across the internet.

However, a consequence of this will be that Shazam will no longer be able to function. The legally-binding filter the tech company will be forced to integrate into its algorithm will essentially crash the platform, as any attempt to identify music snippets in Shazam will be flagged as use of copyrighted material and be blocked by the filter.