My app for today is a rather simple and straight forward one. Even the name is simple. Shazam. Fun to say too (just don’t say it too loud, you’ll get funny looks).
The one thing I missed from my old Sony Ericsson phone, when I went over to Android, was TrackID. The application where you can record a bit of music (from the radio or TV or wherever) and the app searches their database and responds with all the information you need on the song. Album, Artist, Track name, Year, etc. Now if you need this great feature on Android, look no further than Shazam. As it turns out (after a bit of googling) Sony Ericsson’s TrackID actually uses the Shazam service and database.
When you load the app you are presented with a big Shazam logo on a nice blue background, and “Touch to Shazam” printed in bold friendly letters above it. Hold your phone near the source of music, touch to Shazam, wait a while (until the phone vibrates) and then watch as it presents you with the song information. The resultant song information page also has links to Amazon (where you can buy the album), Youtube (to see the music video), and some more information like upcoming concert events for the band.
The Shazam service is quite accurate. I tested it against many different types of music (Popular, South Africa, Classical and even some Japanese movie soundtracks) and it found the correct song every time. With classical music it can even recognize the specific orchestra and conductor.
The application keeps a record of the songs you have found, and also has links to their blog and a list of the most searched for songs. Shazam is available for almost all types of smartphones. You can get Shazam from the Android Market or from the QR Code below:
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