For the data maps which the Medium article displays, I used:
https://github.com/ericfischer/datamaps initially. If there's interest, I can try to get my scripts onto GitHub. They:
a) Include Node.js scripts for converting raw big data (the raw Shazam stream) into something usable for visualisations.
b) Contain Node.js scripts & utilities for automating the creation of maps focussed on particular geographic locations.
c) Contain client side JavaScript for displaying all the individual map tiles onto an interactive map & Google Maps API code to query for places of interest (like a club, shopping center) which may explain heavy usage of Shazam in a particular location.
For the globe, which is unrelated to the datamaps, here's the original WebGL globe which someone did in 2011: https://github.com/cedricpinson/globetweeter
The Wikipedia edits version of the globe I did: https://github.com/umaar/wiki-globe - happy to do a write up of this if people think it'll be useful.