Shazam, founded in 2002, is keeping things fresh today with the launch of a new update, making search results faster than ever. The update also revamps text search so that users can find artists and songs more easily.
Shazam is one of the few truly early iPhone apps to have lasted through the decade.
The service allows users to discover the music around them by pressing a single button. The app listens to the song, matches it with a unique song ID in their own database, and instantly serves up information about that song to the user, including artists profiles, other songs, the album, and links to listen on other services.
Since, Shazam has gone on to let users unlock other rewards or information portals by Shazaming television commercials and other audio clips. But at its core, Shazam is about music, and today’s update solidifies that commitment.
“We’re always trying to improve the Shazam experience, both on the front-end and the back-end,” said Rich Riley. “But this update represents the biggest-to-date changes to our core algorithm.”
Alongside the faster song recognition, a brand new Search is coming to the app. Search has always been somewhat buried within the app, and with today’s update, text search is being brought directly to the home page. Users can search for songs, artists, search by lyric, album name, etc., to find links to listen or download, music videos, and more information about the artists.
This launch goes hand-in-hand with the debut of Verified Artists on Shazam. The company now has more than 600 Verified Artists on the platform, who collectively have more than 2 billion followers.
Not only does this give users an inside look at the artist’s own work, but it gives users a window into the kind of music that those artists are discovering and listening to.
“We find that music artists have a real relationship to Shazam, and they often discover music on Shazam that has only been Shazamed a few times before that,” said Riley.
Shazam has more than 120 million monthly active users, and has raised a total of $130 million since launching in 2002.
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