iPhones Name that Tune with Shazam
Application Indentifies Songs through Recognization Technologies
Jul 28, 2008
Shazam is the brainchild of the London-based company of the same name, and claims it had the first music recognition technologies. While the company is turning its sights on the iPhone, it already had a user base through its support of other mobile platforms.
In 2002, the company started with a service which allowed UK-based users to dial a special mobile number -- 2580 -- and playing the music into the phone for a period of at least 10 to 15 seconds.
How Shazam Works
The service would analyze the recording using a set of musical ‘fingerprints,’ which it would use to identify the song. Once it has a result, a text would be sent to the user with the artist name and song title.
From there, the user could follow a link sent with the portal to other services to find out more information on the music, or buy any associated content that may be available. Later, this same concept was applied to a Java application called Shazam iD, which worked much the same.
Shazam has also worked with Cingular, bringing its services to the United States in 2006, although it cost the user 99 cents per identification. Now AT&T, the service is still available to customers and is available on the Samsung Blackjack II as a preinstalled application.
Enter the iPhone
The iPhone version -- which is free -- works in much the same way as it's Java and Windows Mobile-based counterparts. There are some differences however, which make it more relevant to user’s of Apple’s now-popular wireless device.
When a song is identified, the results page displays a link to content on iTunes, which would allow users to buy the full song directly. Additionally, with YouTube support on the iPhone, Shazam has used that to link to videos on the service that have been converted for playback on the device.
In addition, a user can personalize the tag by taking a photo of where they are hearing the song, and saved to a list of their identified songs. The user can also e-mail this tag to a friend directly through the application.
Testing Shazam Out
But does it really work? The company claims a database of about five million songs, which is a little over half of the total number of songs on iTunes according to Apple (eight million as of the end of last quarter). Tests of the service proved surprisingly accurate and complete.
Out of 16 different tracks tested, the service correctly identified a dozen of them, incorrectly identified two, and couldn’t match on two others.
It also appeared that the device did not necessarily need to be right on top of the speaker either: tests with the device in a restaurant actually identified one track properly, while misidentifying another.
Shazam is available in the App Store in the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, Australia, and New Zealand.
