Music Ally

Shazam, the music recognition company which has found its greatest success via mobile apps, has introduced a new technology designed to help broadcasters and advertisers incorporate mobile into their campaigns. Shazam Audio Recognition Advertising (or SARA for short) encourages members of the public to “Shazam” an advert with their mobile device; the service then recognises the audio and delivers customers some tailored marketing specific to the brand. The big idea is to deliver exclusive promotional content and hidden offers to mobile customers – and of course this being Shazam, any tagged adverts remain in the user’s profile for them to view later or share with friends.

Taken at face value, the new Shazam service is a nice add-on for advertisers who use music as a core part of their TV campaigns, helping them to connect with consumers who have a ‘what’s the track in that ad’ moment. But the real value lies in more sophisticated ad campaigns where extra value music content can be given to any ad viewer who wants to interact with the advert – a bit like an audio QR code or red button. How that message is conveyed to viewers will be the tricky part.

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Mobile music service Shazam says its mobile apps aren’t generating 300,000 full-track music purchases a day after all – instead, the company is “approaching 260,000 downloads a day”.

Still not bad, considering that users are tagging on average two million tracks a day. So where did that 300,000 claim come from? Ahem: CEO Andrew Fisher, talking on-stage as part of a panel session at MidemNet.

In fairness, the 300k figure was a calculation made by a fellow panelist that Fisher then confirmed, rather than a planned announcement. Billboard does the sums on the new number, and reckons that at 260k downloads a day, Shazam would be responsible for 6.3% of global single-track downloads.

Mobile music discovery app Shazam is now generating 300,000 track purchases a day, according to CEO Andrew Fisher, talking at MidemNet 2010’s mobile apps and music panel session today.

He was responding to a question from the audience, asking him to divulge more figures on Shazam’s success beyond its headline figure of 50 million mobile users.

Fisher said that Shazam is driving 13% conversion rates from people tagging tracks using its apps. He also talked about the importance for the company of not focusing on a single smartphone platform – like iPhone – but of launching across all handsets.

Meanwhile, Fisher also sang the praises of augmented reality – as a mobile user, rather than hinting at AR features for Shazam.

For Music Ally’s full liveblog of the session, head to the Midem(Net) Blog.

It’s not long since Shazam launched its Shazam Encore premium iPhone app, but now another version has gone live: (Shazam) RED. It’s essentially the same music recognition app, for the same price ($4.99), except people buying it are automatically donating to help fight AIDS in Africa (20% of the purchase price, in fact)

So, users get unlimited tagging, the ability to share those tags via Twitter and Facebook, and tap-through links to buy songs in the iTunes Store. It also has the location features where tags are plotted on Google Maps, recommendations of songs based on your tag history, and the ability to associate camera-snaps with tags.

Meanwhile, there’s also a (RED) News option, to find out what the charity is up to, and check out other official (RED) products and events. If you’re thinking of upgrading to the premium version of Shazam, this one’s definitely the one to go for.

Shazam has revealed the next stage in its plans for mobile app world domination, launching a new iPhone app called Shazam Encore. It’s essentially a premium version of the company’s existing iPhone app, offering quicker tagging, music recommendations and charts, and a car mode to automatically tag tracks that are playing on the radio when driving.

The Encore version costs a one-off download fee of £2.99 / $4.99, although Shazam says it will continue to support the free version too – albeit limiting new users of that to five tags a month in an effort to persuade them to upgrade. That free version has racked up more than 10 million downloads so far.

“We have listened to our iPhone and iPod touch users and have created a new app which answers their requests to take them on an enhanced music journey that will change the way music lovers experience and learn about music,” says CEO Andrew Fisher. The company recently became the first European startup to get investment from the VC-backed iFund.

Mobile music discovery service Shazam has announced that it now has more than 50 million users, with 10 million of those having downloaded its iPhone app.

Meanwhile, the company has taken new investment from VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which runs the $100 million iFund to invest in iPhone-related startups.

KPCB partner Matt Murphy says Shazam will now add more recommendation and sharing features, as well as video content, and ticket and merchandise sales. “I think they’re going to be one of the companies that shows the way to building a really large business around this ecosystem,” he says.

CEO Andrew Fisher says Shazam is now profitable, which represents continued progress given it lost £2.53 million in the year to June 2007, and £1.33 million in the year to June 2008.

Midomi might not be as high-profile as its rival Shazam, but the music recognition firm has nevertheless secured a $4 million round of funding on the back of becoming the top-ranked paid music app on iPhone.

It’s also making some bullish claims of identifying songs three times faster than Shazam. VentureBeat says an “unnamed non-US global device maker” is a strategic investor in the new funding round, which hints that Midomi could have bagged a deal to embed the app in more handsets.

We’ll reserve judgement on the Midomi versus Shazam versus Gracenote recognition battle, other than to note that competition can only be a healthy thing in this field, encouraging each company to roll out new features and improve its technology rapidly.

Shazam has announced that it now has 35 million people using its mobile applications, tagging more than a million tracks a day, and generating more than 100 million page impressions a month. It passed the 20 million milestone in September last year, so that’s impressive growth indeed.

The growth appears to be driven by the company’s apps for iPhone and Android – the latter launched in October. CEO Andrew Fisher says the company expects its rapid growth to continue. “With consumers tagging an average of ten tracks a month, we’re confident that this exponential growth of end-user adoption will continue throughout 2009 with an anticipated 50 million Shazamers before the end of the year.”

Let’s dig into those figures, though. 35 million users are tagging more than a million tracks a day, which for argument’s sake is around 30 million tagged tracks a month. Yet if consumers tag an average of ten tracks a month, that implies around three million active users, doesn’t it? We’re asking Shazam for some clarification on that.

2009 seems set to see the company ramp up its plans to make money from ads, too. The company suggests that it’s offering advertisers “highly targeted marketing based on music lovers’ interests and preferences; knowing their likes, advertisers can send them relevant information such as when an album launches in store, or when concert dates are announced.”

Presumably users will have to opt in if this advertising is to be as push as it sounds.

Music identification firm Shazam has released its chart of hot artists for 2009, based on what tracks its users have been tagging with their mobile phones. Here’s the list:

1. Kid Cudi
2. Lady Gaga
3. Empire Of The Sun
4. Daniel Merriweather
5. White Lies
6. The Airbourne Toxic Event
7. Florence And The Machine
8. Boy Better Know
9. Little Boots
10. Mavado

I know what you’re thinking – ‘Shock! A 2009 tips poll where Little Boots isn’t top!’ – but Shazam reckons its chart represents the true voice of music fans, rather than the critic-led charts elsewhere.

Or, as head of music Will Mills puts it: “With music discovery services like Shazam, music fans are making their voices heard and are as important as the critics in deciding which acts will do the business in 2009.”