Song Identification is very near to my heart. For a while, I tried resurrecting my "Listen.app" iPhone utility but a GraceNote license was out of reach (about the price of a typical condo) and early talks with Shazam (via Tapulous) never went anywhere. So I was absolutely gobsmacked when today I found that Shazam had gone ahead and released a version of its Music Identification Software for the iPhone.
You hold it up to record a few seconds and Shazam identifies the music. The software is beautifully designed and a joy to use. You can save your tag history and buy music you like directly from iTunes as well as share the music info with friends via email.
Kudos to Shazam for releasing such a beautiful application. Although it's currently free, it will require a service plan with a monthly cost. Going by other countries, expect the service to run about $5 to $10 per month.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-10-2008 @ 4:50PM
thezonie said...
This was one of the first apps I tried, and it works wonderfully. :)
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7-10-2008 @ 4:52PM
apeguero said...
See? This is something Apple should provide free of charge as an iTunes tool to aid us iTunes customers to properly identify a song that's in our heads. A monthly charge for this? No. Sorry.
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7-10-2008 @ 4:54PM
apeguero said...
Sorry people I have to reply to my own post but I hit send to soon. I can't justify paying a monthly charge for something that will help me identify a song I would have to pay for in iTunes. I say Apple should provide it as a tool in iTunes because it would help us id the songs we want to buy.
I can justify a selling price of like $5 or $10 but a monthly charge?
7-10-2008 @ 5:03PM
aaron Alexander said...
well, apple prob already has licensing deals worked out so they could prob do this very easily.
7-10-2008 @ 4:53PM
Tom Castle said...
Smart concept - but how many people are going to sign up for a frigging monthly subscription for this?!?! It reminds me of Iridium in some ways - technologically impressive, but cretinously dumb marketing strategy. Um, no.
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7-10-2008 @ 5:00PM
Costitec said...
True! I lost a lot of money with Iridium so I know what you mean
7-10-2008 @ 4:57PM
ekinnee said...
Testing it with "chick music" are we?
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7-10-2008 @ 5:10PM
DennisQ said...
No way they'll get subscribers. Just not that frequent of a used app. I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually get by with simply taking the 5% commission on itunes song sales if they link directly to the itunes songs and can enable instant gratification on the mobile itunes store.
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7-10-2008 @ 5:26PM
Tom Z said...
I couldn't agree more. There's no way I would pay for a subscription for an infrequently used app like this. However, I would gladly pay a nominal surcharge on music I purchase that this app helped me identify. A direct link from the app to the Mobile iTunes Store would be needed for this to work though.
7-10-2008 @ 5:14PM
Lee said...
Shazam charges £1 a time here in the UK for this service and it's mainly used in pubs on a Friday night to answer arguments about who is being played... I've never used it at £1 and for a monthly fee they can sod off to !
They need to talk to Apple about getting a referral fee for every track sold. That's the way to fund this any other model is going to fail miserably.
Free App = 1000's of users and referral fees . $5 a month and you can kiss that all goodbye.
Also worth noting that while this will work over 3G you can't by music over 3G still.
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7-10-2008 @ 5:23PM
thezonie said...
That's funny, I thought the "available for a limited time for free" meant that eventually they would charge a flat-fee for the download, so I'd better get it now. Oh well, it'll be fun while it lasts.
I guess it's also worth noting that midomi is another free app that does basically the same thing, just not as well. I'm not sure if they will adopt the same pricing model as Shazam sometime down the road.
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7-10-2008 @ 5:43PM
SteveM said...
Great app, but there's no way I'd pay a monthly $$ for it. I'd pay a small per-use charge - maybe .10 - but that's it. Seems like something that the online music sellers would do well to subsidize, as it would only help them.
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7-10-2008 @ 5:45PM
Scott said...
it's free
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7-10-2008 @ 5:47PM
SirCrumpet said...
Midomi ( http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284972998&mt=8 ) appears to be another (free) option to do the same thing...
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7-10-2008 @ 5:53PM
Derek Martin said...
There's another app called midomi in the app store that seems to promise the same thing. I've installed both but haven't had a chance to test either.
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7-10-2008 @ 6:22PM
elby said...
$5 to $10 a month? Dream on! Watch your subscribers go from thousands to hundreds then dozens. $10 a year "maybe". (Big maybe)
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7-10-2008 @ 6:23PM
dasilvetz said...
Midomi is AWESOME!! and it's free!
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7-10-2008 @ 8:06PM
Joey said...
Why dont apple do this for free? They already have a database full of music (um... iTunes Store?)
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7-11-2008 @ 2:25PM
Mike Morin said...
For music that plays on the radio there is already an iPhone app that gives you now playing data, it is free and does not require that you hold your phone to a speaker. And, it gives you the last 5 songs so you do not have to do it while the song is playing (or you are driving in hazardous traffic). www.baktrax.mobi from you iPhone browser.
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7-14-2008 @ 12:54PM
artaxerxes said...
I wished it worked with the current iPod track on the iphone... rather than fading it out!
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