Shazam's new multimedia player

12 January 2012

by Eamonn Forde

Mobile music recognition service Shazam is now over a decade old – making it one of the most established names in digital music – and its latest evolution is all about turning it into a broader multi-media music player.

The new Shazam Player is an iOS app for Apple devices and currently available for free. Using LyricsPlay, users can now stream lyrics (currently limited to 30,000 tracks) in time to music they are playing (echoing the TuneWiki app that now sits within the Spotify player client).

It also integrates related YouTube clips and also links through to touring information on favourite acts, moving into an area previously dominated by Songkick.

An additional feature – called Track Tray – allows users to quickly see the extra features around a particular song in the collection. As is now standard in any app, it also lets users share details of what they are playing to their Twitter and Facebook accounts.

The reason Shazam – a service that predates the iPhone and whose technology was being developed as the first version of Napster went live – has survived and grown is because it is continually adapting to changes in the market.

It started by using a mobile shortcode (‘2580’ in the UK) but was quick to adapt to emerging smartphone technology over the past few years, now having dedicated apps for all the major mobile platforms.

In the past few months, it has increased its moves into film and TV. At the start of December, it revealed details of a partnership with 20th Century Fox to promote the Alvin & The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked film. Via the Shazam for TV technology, users will be able to ‘tag’ the film ad and, through it, access extra content – including a free song download and video clips.

The company now has over 165 million users globally and claims to identify over 1 billion songs a year. Around one in ten tagged songs results in a click-through purchase of the track, meaning it drives around $100m [A$96.8m] in music sales a year.

The company recently published details of user activity during 2011. Adele emerged as the most tagged artist of the year – with Rolling In The Deep generating 4.2 million tags globally while Someone Like You netted 2.7 million tags. Other key tracks on the service last year were LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem (3.4m tags), Pitbull’s Give Me Everything (3.3m), Foster The People’s Pumped Up Kicks (3.2m) and Mr. Saxobeat by Alexandra Stan (2.7m).

It also works as an increasingly powerful early warning system for labels and managers, showing the new acts that are driving the most tags – data that can be broken down by region, making it important for marketing purposes and strategic promotion.

Its incredible growth and durability (something other services could take lessons from) is that it is that rare thing – an ever-evolving platform that is equally useful to the music industry as it is to artists and consumers.