Filed under: Audio, Freeware, iPhone
iPhone App Review: Shazam helps you 'Name that tune'
Have you ever heard some music, be it in the background in a shop, or played on the radio and ever wished you knew the track's name? That's the dilemma Shazam sets out to solve. By launching the application, holding your iPhone to the sound source you want to 'tag' and waiting a few seconds to sample the track, Shazam will tell you what that track is, and present you with links to buy the song using the iPhone's built-in iTunes store, as well as doing a YouTube search for the track to see if there's any related videos you could see.
In our testing here at Download Squad HQ, the application performed very well with all the music we threw at it (classical, jazz, rock and pop) and even when tested in the middle of a busy city-centre street playing music from another iPhone's external speaker, the application still correctly identified our tracks. Best of all, Shazam is a free application from the App Store and available now.
I don't know if this is a labor of love or merely the brainchild of four very gifted games designers, but Level Up is a really weird mash-up of gaming elements that you have probably never seen in a Flash game before.
Let's start with the premise itself: Groundhog Day meets Memento. The game experience revolves around 'days': you explore the world and the clock slowly ticks towards the evening. You bounce around picking up gems and talking to the denizens of 'Level Upland'. Eventually you feel tired and head back to ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Miguel said 5:28PM on 7-13-2008
This app is AWESOME. It works very well and in almost any condition. I used it last night at a loud crowded bar to identify a song I liked and it worked perfectly.
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Jake said 5:35PM on 7-13-2008
also try Midomi... It does an equally good job with extra features.
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rich said 10:25AM on 7-15-2008
Midomi never works for me.
Rocketboy said 8:52AM on 7-14-2008
Not trying to thread crap, but how do you create a RSS feed for here with a filter?
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Zé Miguel said 8:25AM on 7-16-2008
http://www.downloadsquad.com/feeds
Kolin said 6:35AM on 7-15-2008
I'm not sure about anywhere else, but shazam has has a phone service here for years, If you dial 2580 and let it listen to 20 secconds of music, it will send tou a txt with the artist and track name. Im guessing the iphone app is just some kind of wraper for this
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Munger said 7:37AM on 7-15-2008
All Sony-Ericssen phones have done this for years with there TrackID app
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toxic boy said 7:49AM on 7-15-2008
it's free for a "limited time". and then you'll have to pay for each successful ID or a monthly fee for the service, just like their normal mobile phone service.
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Joe | A New Band A Day said 8:34AM on 7-15-2008
This is indeed a great and fun invention! I can imagine the fun you'd have in the pub with this. Yet, it's still slightly worrying in a silver-foil hat conspiracy theory-type way - if a phone can have software that can figure out what music you're playing/humming, how long til it can 'intelligently' figure out what your conversations involve?
*re-watches 'Loose Change'*
Joe - http://www.anewbandaday.com
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Corky said 10:24AM on 7-15-2008
You know, this has also existed as a part of the Verizon network for at least a year: Verizon Song ID. Interesting, but not innovative or new. AND, Verizon's service is completely free, not subject to a subscription service as this app appears to be. Way to go fanboys, you are once again making something old and common seem new and flashy, and also more expensive than it needs to be...
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Carlo said 4:24AM on 8-19-2008
The Shazam music recognition service has existed for many years. Shazam brands the service directly in the UK (2580 service) and is white labeled by other operators in many countries. The Verizon Song ID service is in fact Shazam rebranded. More recently shazam has developed phone applications for Symbian, Microsoft, Java and now iPhone. Interestingly enough many people hear of Shazam only because of the success of the iPhone app. Have a look at www.shazam.com
SoFastRR said 12:33PM on 7-15-2008
V Cast Music had this years ago, way to be on the ball Steve.
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Teodz said 4:51AM on 7-16-2008
Old news. Sony-Ericsson has done this years ago with TrackID.
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Justin said 1:20AM on 7-17-2008
Does anyone who went to Stump the Experts at WWDC this year know if this is the software the guy used to name all the songs? Or if not, do you know what software he was using?
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radon420 said 5:38AM on 8-30-2008
can i get this app with the old iphone? if so how do i download it? thanks
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