Apple likes to keep you in its walled gardens with convenient but locked-down apps. This isn't always a bad thing - I like using my Apple Watch to unlock my Mac. However, it can get annoying when you can't use third-party apps or services to perform certain actions, such as music streaming or voice assistants. Shazam, Apple's song recognition service, is a good example.
When you ask Siri to identify a song playing around you, the voice assistant listens, Shazams it to identify the song, and shows you a button to open the song in Apple Music. This is great if you use Apple's streaming service, but not so great if you choose a third-party option. Typically, iOS doesn't let you open these links in Spotify, YouTube Music, or any other streaming app you might use. Luckily, the iPhone automation community has a great solution to this particular problem: a shortcut called Quick Shazam, created by user @ZXXII on RoutineHub.
Force Shazam a song to Spotify (or other service)
To stop Shazam from always sending you to Apple Music, you need to use Apple's Shortcuts app. Most iPhones already have this feature, so start by downloading the Quick Shazam shortcut and running it on your iPhone. During the setup process, Quick Shazam will ask you to select your favorite music platform from the following options:
Spotify
Diesel
tidal
iTunes
Youtube
YouTube Music
Pandora
sound cloud
Don't worry if you later abandon your subscription, as you can change your choice at any time. Before using this shortcut, I highly recommend adding it to your home screen to make it more accessible. To do this, open the Shortcuts app and hold down the Quick Shazam icon. Click Share and Add to Home Screen . Now it will open like an application.
From here, whenever you want, just tap the shortcut's icon and it will automatically open Shazam and start listening to the song. Once the song is recognized, you'll see a Shazam popup with an Apple Music button for a second or so. Ignore this. The shortcut will automatically close the popup and open the song on your preferred music streaming service.
