It is said that “Music is life, that’s why our hearts have beats”. The rhythm of music soothes the soul and relaxes the mind, offering relief from the daily chaos around us, even if it’s just for one song.
However, we all know how irksome it can be when you hear mesmerizing music somewhere but aren’t able to identify the lyrics after fishing around on Google. And until one day when we’re able to hum the melody directly into Google, we have delightful software applications like Shazam to help us.
Shazam is a revolutionary music discovery app that helps both music fans and musicians by identifying music being played and predicting music statistics. For any music lover who always has an ear out for new music, here is a comprehensive guide to the Shazam music app.
About Shazam: Music Discovery
Shazam is an American application owned by Apple Inc. Available for iOS, watchOS, macOS, Wear OS, and Android, the app is key to exploring the vast musical spectrum at your fingertips. By using song recognition technology, the app became an incredibly useful and beloved way to discover new music for its users.
Shazam is recognized as the world’s leading media engagement company and was created in 1990 by four entrepreneurs. The Shazam service was launched in 2002 as a rudimentary call-in system where you were texted the song and its artist after a 30-second phone call.
The Shazam app was introduced in 2008 for iOS and Android mobile phones. Shazam now belongs to Apple, which acquired it in 2018 for a reported $400 million.
The concept behind the development of the Shazam mobile app was the first of its kind and has become so universally known and beloved that its users have coined the term ‘Shazamed’ for the process of conducting the app’s main function of listening and detecting songs.
Two Secrets of Success
Below are the two major advantages of the app that make it stand-out.
Recognition Of Music: It is the ultimate goal behind the development of the Shazam app. Simply by opening the app, Shazam can identify a song playing nearby quite quickly, usually after 10 seconds of the app ‘listening’ to the music. Even a video of fewer than 5 seconds is enough to make Shazam iterate the song and present the corresponding data.
Predictive Analytics: Other than pointing out the name of the song, Shazam is also capable of evaluating the rise and fall of the artists. From the overall usability, the app discovers the songs that are most played by music lovers or raise interest in their hearts. This statistic is helpful to curate a list of top songs and singers in a feature called ‘Shazam Charts’, which displays the songs with the highest instances of Shazaming.
How Shazam Works
It is beyond a shadow of a doubt that Shazam is a game-changer in the world of music and entertainment. Music surrounds us in many environments, and oftentimes we are exposed to new music and want a way to be able to identify it to listen to again. This is where Shazam steps in and takes charge.
Whether it’s audio saved within your phone or a live performance, Shazam analyzes a song’s frequency pattern, which is a song’s unique audio fingerprint, in order to match it with a database of musical frequency patterns. Shazam is even able to differentiate between different versions of the song, be it the original version, or a cover, or a remix, quite easily.
By matching the audio fingerprint with the database, the app offers details of the song on the screen within 10 seconds. The technology is so cool, it’s definitely worth finding out more about how Shazam works: take a look at the video below!
Features of Shazam
Other than identifying the songs, the app is able to perform other useful actions. Recommendations for the best songs and artists is one such feature of Shazam. To know more, users can also click on the profile of the artist and discover other songs in their repertoire.
Share, Save, and Offline Play
After finding songs, advertisements, or tracks on Shazam, users can also share it on other platforms such as email or WhatsApp. The same option is also available for the official YouTube or Apple Music videos discovered with Shazam. When displaying the discovered song, the app will also give you options for where to stream it on various services like Spotify or Deezer.
Option To Save: Shazam not only lets the users share music but also provides the joy of saving it into their profile on the app. This makes it easy to find their favorite songs discovered by Shazam if they wish to hear them again. Users can also save the top-pick artists and connect to their profile anytime they want.
Offline Play: Poor internet or no connection at all is not a problem with Shazam. The reason being, you can also find the songs using the app upon leaving, as long as the auto mode is turned on. This makes the app one of the leaders in entertainment apps as it helps its users to have access to music anytime and anywhere, even when you’re offline, a major priority for music lovers.
Even More Features
To explore music while sitting at work or working out in the gym, Shazam can run in the background of your device. Shazam automatically detects the songs even when using other apps on the mobile phone.
Dark Mode: Just like many of the top-rated apps, Shazam offers dark mode accessibility for both iOS and Android. By changing the theme in the app’s settings, users can run the app in dark mode which means saving battery life and enjoying better readability.
Interact With Other Apps: With Shazam it’s easy to interact with other sites such as Apple Music and Spotify. Upon connecting, one can directly add the Shazamed song to these websites to enjoy. In addition, the version of iOS 8 or later also has Shazam built into Siri. In short, just by asking Siri about the name of the song, the users can automatically get the iTunes link to it.
How to Download
Shazam is very easy to download and use. To download the application for an Android device, all it takes is to find it in the search bar of Google Play Store by searching for “Shazam” and clicking on “Install.” Similarly, it can be downloaded from the App Store for iOS phones or a Apple Watch. After downloading, create an account in order to use the app’s full functionalities.
Users can also download Shazam for Windows or PC with the help of top Android emulators. After launching the emulator and logging-in into the Google Play Store, the app can be easily installed and accessed on the Home tab. The desktop version allows the app to run in the background and identify any songs it overhears.
The best part about Shazam is that it is completely free to download for both Android and iOS smartphone devices. To make a fantastic app even better, Apple also announced ad-free usability for all users, also at no additional charge, a rare offering in the music app domain.
Shazam Is Always Evolving
Pop-Up Shazam: One of the most recent features of Shazam gives it the ability to ‘listen’ to songs playing from your phone into your headphones. This feature can run in the background of your device and display a small pop-up when it identifies a song, displaying its song title, artist, and a small picture of the artist/musical act.
Spot Potential Hits On Shazam: Though the app is not going to present the complete data on mainstream pop songs, users can use it for spotting the songs that are sonically different from average hits. EDM and dance-oriented tracks can also be found on the app in no time. However, it is better to depend exclusively on the app to discover potential hits.
Do Not Consider The Least-Explored Song A Flop: As they say, ‘do not judge a book by its cover’: not all songs that are least-explored on Shazam are a flop. This may be because of the fact that users already can identify the song or must have already saved it in the playlist for later.
Key Takeaways
Finding the name of the song when all one knows is the melody or a few lyrics can be a challenging task. Letting innovative pieces of technology like Shazam identify the song and connect you with new music to discover and enjoy is the easiest way to never let a fantastic song slip by again.
The incredible features of this trail-blazing app are a dream for anyone looking to discover new music. Waste no time in letting Shazam help you to find new music to enjoy!
