Shazam and Saavn team up for discovery of Indian music

Nishtha KanalApr 03, 2013 16:45:07 IST

Music identification service Shazam today announced an exclusive new partnership with Saavn, the popular Indian music streaming service. The new partnership is supposed to give music fans a fun new way to discover the latest tracks from their favourite South Asian artistes in Bollywood and regional cinema.

Shazam has already started mapping out Saavn’s library onto its music database. This could take a while since the announcement, given Saavn’s large library of not just Hindi but also regional music.

Easing discovery of Indian music

The partnership between the two music-based apps will help Indian music fans figure out the name of songs and its artistes easily. Moreover, arrangement to purchase the music legally off iTunes is also being made by Saavn and Shazam. Listeners will also be able to share their finds with their friends on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ via Shazam. According to the announcement, more tracks from the inexhaustible collection of Indian music will be added every week to the partnered database

The app partnership will widely cover popular genres such as bhangra, devotional, ghazals, Carnatic, Indipop and more. It will also encompass music in regional languages including Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Kannada and Bhojpuri

Saavn was launched in 2006 and is home to a massive music catalogue of over one million Indic tracks. Saavn stands for South Asian Audio Video Network and is currently available for the web as well as iOS, Android and Java-based mobile devices. The service allows users to stream music online and create and share playlists. Users can also create radio stations. Like Pandora, where the service delivers music based on your preferences, with Saavn you enter a song you like, in the beginning, and all the songs streamed to you are based on algorithmic similarities to your originally chosen song.

In November last year, Saavn even released the English arm of its music discovery service. Saavn English brings along with it music from international artistes such as Jay-Z, Pitbull, Shakira and Michael Jackson to Saavn.com for Indian listeners.

Saavn English has started off with more than a quarter of a million songs from label partners Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group. The library includes new releases and catalogue classics by Sony Music artists such as AC/DC, Aerosmith, Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, Carrie Underwood, Chris Brown, Britney Spears and more.

London-based Shazam too has been constantly striving to better close competitor SoundHound. Late last year, Shazam released an update to its Free, Encore and (RED) apps on iPhone and iPod touch devices. It brought along a new UI that included an updated listening screen and bigger album artwork. Other new features included automatic resubmission, My Tag search, sharing on Google+ and an improved experience for the visually impaired.