Sean D. Francis

Android App of the Week: Shazam

Posted on 17 March 2010

Ever since getting my Motorola Droid phone, I’ve been obsessed with apps.  I will tell you the truth, I didn’t think I was that big of an app person.  Nifty little one note programs just didn’t seem that cool to me. Until I started using them and realized just how each app adds a new feature to the phone that makes me love using it just that much more.  iPhone users are well aware of this phenomenon and I was one of those people chiding the iPhone users over their app love.

The Android app marketplace still isn’t as large as the iPhone app marketplace, but it is still filled with so many amazing apps that it is hard to keep track.  I have two friends who also have Droid phones and one of the first things we do when we get together is compare notes on which apps we have and love.

This week I’m going to rave about Shazam.  I downloaded Shazam with no real purpose, it was free and it looked interesting but I couldn’t see a use for it.  Shazam listens to music that is playing and then identifies the song.  Honestly, I didn’t see it as being something I’d use in any serious way.  Often times if I am hearing music, identifying it is as easy as looking at the information on the track being played.  All of that changed when I was sitting in a noisy pub and heard a song that sounded really cool.  I had the option of flagging down the bartender who was incredibly busy to see what the song was or fire up Shazam.  I doubted it would work because the bar was filled with noise from all the people.  I assumed all the people noise would overwhelm the music sample and it wouldn’t work.

Shazam plucked out the music from the noise and identified the song.  This wasn’t just normal pop music, either, it was fairly obscure Irish/pseudo-Irish music:  Steve Earle, Planxty, and Shane MacGowan & the Popes, for example.

For the musically illiterate, trying to identify songs has always been annoying.  I love being able to answer the question, “Do you know what song is playing?”  This also makes for a great music discovery app since you can find out what that catchy tune is.

Shazam is available on the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android as well as several other cell phones.  I love this app because it truly exemplifies the kind of power and information we now have at our fingertips.  Trivial power and information, but power non-the-less.  I also know that Shazam isn’t an app that lacked notice from the community of smart phone users, but it was a revelation for me.  I can’t wait to take it to the club and see if it can pick up music from distorted speakers and songs that are played at different speeds.