Shazam for iPhone: Simple and Clever

By: Raphael Amselli

One of the main reasons I got an iPhone was because of the music player that it uses. I love music, and can never get enough of it. When I am not listening to music on my iPhone, I usually listen to the radio. Now, if you’re anything like me, you probably never pay attention to the DJ when he announces the track. That is a problem when a song comes on and you would love to know the title. But fear not my friends as there is an app for that, and that app is Shazam!

As the title says, Shazam is very simple. When you start the application (whether it’s on iPhone, Blackberry, Android or even Symbian), you can check your previously tagged tracks or tag a new one. Tagging a track is the process of recognizing a track being played. And that is where Shazam is really clever. Press the Tag Now button, and if the music is loud enough, it will pick it up straight away and try to recognize it. It first listens to the background music, sends it to one of the Shazam servers, which analyzes the extracted recording, and returns track information if it can find it.
Now, my favorite game has been to try to trick it and so far, with no success. The app picks up the music whether it is on the radio, a CD, or even a person humming the tune.

This in itself makes Shazam a great application. The great thing is that Shazam is now also integrating a social media aspect to this app: you can already share your Tags on twitter, buy the tracks on iTunes, or view the video on YouTube. They have also developed new features only visible on the website like a Tag Chart and a list of the latest Tags. I would love to see this feature make it into the phone. There are probably many more possible features as I think there is a lot of potential for turning this simple app into a more community based application.

I believe that Shazam is a great utility. You may not use it all the time as you use an email application or the facebook app, but when you do use it, you are sure to enjoy it. I also love the fact that even though this is a well established application (Shazam was released in 2002), there is the potential to turn it into a more social app with the entire concept revolving around music, and let’s be honest, who doesn’t love music?

Our Rating: 5/5

Download Link

Developer: Shazam

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