Shazam Goes the Social Route, Introduces Shazam Friends

Shazam, the 10 year old service (2 year old app) which allows you to get song information on the go, updated its mobile app to introduce Shazam Friends. The service connects with your Facebook account to create a news feed of what their friends have recently tagged. You can then listen to a preview of the songs your friends tag, view videos, or even buy the song, adding a new method of music discovery.

Almost like Frasier Crane, Shazam’s listening

David Jones, EVBP of Marketing at Shazam says that everyone has a friend whose taste they like and Shazam Friends is a way to share with them. This functionality does add a depth to music discovery that apps like GetGlue and Midomi don’t offer. GetGlue allows you to share your music listening habits of music you already know. However, say you’re in a coffee shop and a song comes on that you like but one you’re unfamiliar with. You Shazam it to get information on the song  i.e. its title, artist, record company, year of release etc. and then it goes to your Shazam Friends newsfeed where you can basically say, “Hey, I discovered this song, it’s cool, give it a listen”.

Shazam Friends is available as an update to its current application. The iOS update is out (however, I’m having problems generating the news feed, getting only a processing wheel. I was able to set up the account without a problem though) and the Android update should come in a few days. You do have to connect with Facebook to access the service and the only friends you’ll see are your Facebook friends who also have the update, which could explain why newsfeeds are not generating properly.