Retail News CRM

Tag: shazam

  • Update to Shazam allows users to multitask while the app does its thing

    Update to Shazam allows users to multitask while the app does its thing

    Music discovery app Shazam has been updated to version 17.11 today for the Apple iPhone and Apple iPad Shazam apps. Thanks to the update, Shazam will now continue to multitask and run even if you’re using another app. In other words, Shazam will continue to work in the background finding information about a song even while you’re running another app. You can even use Shazam to identify a song playing on another app.

    While Shazam is listening in the background, you’ll see the Shazam icon appear in the Dynamic Island and the results will be displayed via Live Activities on the iPhone. Among other improvements, Shazam now will listen longer before it decides that it cannot name a specific tune, and, with the update, Shazam can now identify classical music. The new features are available for iPhones running iOS 15 or later, and iPads running iPadOS 15 or later. The Apple Vision Pro spatial computer uses the iPad version of the app.

    The Shazam app is available for free from the App Store. You might not have realized that the app is owned by Apple which announced a $400 million deal to buy it in December 2017 although the deal did not close for another nine months. At the time it announced the transaction, Apple said that it had “exciting plans in store” for Shazam. For the most part, iPhone users are still waiting.

    To make sure that your Shazam app is toggled on for Live Activities, go to Settings > Shazam (you must have the app installed first!) and toggle on Live Activities. When you get a notification about a song via Shazam’s Live Activities, tap on the notification and you’ll get the full Shazam page for the song which shows you the name of the album the tune is on, allows you to listen to the full song, view videos related to the song, and hear audio of songs that are similar to the one you had Shazam discover.

    Here’s how this works. Let’s say you hear a tune you want to know more about, but you’re also in the middle of reading an important story for work on a news app. You open the Shazam app, tap on the Shazam icon, and return to the app for work. The Dynamic Island will alert you that Shazam is on the job and will notify you via Live Activities when it has come up with the name of the song.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Update to Shazam makes the app more useful

    Update to Shazam makes the app more useful

    It is hard to believe that nearly four years have passed since Apple paid a reported $400 million for the music recognition app Shazam. Whether this was a move made by Apple to compete with Pixel’s Now Playing feature is unknown. At the time that the deal was announced, Apple said that it ” has exciting plans for Shazam which was one of the first apps in the App Store.

    Apple did add Shazam to the iOS Control Center in iOS 14.2, which is not really exciting. In iOS 14, Apple added a feature allowing Shazam to recognize music playing inside an app. Again, excitement is in the eye of the beholder and we’re not sure that this would qualify as such. We noticed that Shazam had received an update that will, according to the release notes, allow the app to listen “longer” and “harder.”

    Apple says that by working harder, Shazam will find more songs. The company stated, “Shazam now finds more songs by trying harder, for longer. Tap to Shazam to give it a go.” While Shazam is supposed to be able to match just a few seconds of a song with that tune’s title, sometimes the app can be stumped at first and that is why hearing just some additional seconds of a tune could make the difference between being unable to learn the name of that song you just heard or Shazam finding out the name of that song you can’t get out of your head, and the artist.

    You might have been unaware that Apple offers a widget for Shazam. Depending on which size widget you choose, you could see up to four songs recently discovered by Shazam. To add the widget, long-press on an empty space on your iPhone screen. That puts the phone into “jiggle mode.”

    While in “jiggle mode,” tap the “+” button in the top-left corner and search for the Shazam widget which showed up first when we looked for the widget (see accompanying photo). Select which size widget you want and tap on “Add Widget.”

    Apple is currently running a promotion now through January 31st. Simply visit this website and use the camera on your iPhone to scan the QR code and redeem the offer. The five free months are available to new Apple Music subscribers only.

    The Shazam app is also available for the Apple Watch.

  • Music lovers are getting a “small” present in iOS 14.6

    Music lovers are getting a “small” present in iOS 14.6

    Has this ever happened to you? You hear a song that you like and want to find out the name of the tune and the artist. So you start navigating your iPhone’s screen looking for Apple’s own Shazam app, but by the time you find it and tap on the icon, the song has come to an end and it is too late. Until you hear that song again, it will probably remain a mystery in your mind.

    Sure, you can try to speed up this process by adding Shazam to the Control Center, something that has been available to iPhone users since the iOS 14.2 update. Go to Settings > Control Center and look for Music Recognition and the Shazam logo.

    An App Clip is a small part of an app that can be downloaded to your device quickly, and it contains the part of the app that you need without having to install the whole thing. With the Shazam App Clip, the next time you just have to know whether that song playing at the mall was an old Guster tune, go to the Control Center and tap on Shazam. After iOS 14.6 is disseminated, you will see a tile-shaped prompt asking if you want to “explore your music.”

    Tap on the prompt and you’ll get all of the information about the mystery song that you want to know including the lyrics, the ability to play it on Apple Music, and a link to download the full Shazam app. The update to iOS 14.6 is due to be released very shortly, so if you’re music curious, you might want to install the Shazam App Clip as soon as you update your iPhone. Don’t forget that you don’t have to wait for an invitation from the App Clip to install the full Shazam app which is available right now in the App Store.

    By the way, when you hear a song you like and don’t know the name or the artist, instead of using Shazam, you can always ask Siri “What is the name of this song?”

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Shazam! Apple releases public beta for iOS 14.2

    Shazam! Apple releases public beta for iOS 14.2

    Last week, just the day after it released iOS 14, Apple introduced the developer beta for iOS 14.2. Today, the first public beta version of both was launched by Apple and it allows for the addition of the Shazam music recognition feature to the Control Center. To do this, you must first have the iOS 14 public beta installed. That can be accomplished by signing up with the Apple Beta Software Program. Then, go to Settings > General > Software Update to install the iOS 14.2 beta.

    After you’ve installed the beta, you will need to go to Settings > Control Center > More Controls and add Shazam to the Control Center. For those unaware with what Shazam does, it listens to and identifies music playing in the background, in apps, and even though a user’s AirPods. Apple, in one of its typically strategic acquisitions, purchased Shazam in December 2017 for a reported $400 billion. In iOS 14, you can even use Shazam with the new picture-in-picture feature to discover the music playing inside a video.

    Also coming to the iOS 14.2 beta is a People Detection feature that measures the distance between two people; this is found in the Magnifier app. There are also some other changes including a new icon for the Apple Watch app that shows the new Apple Watch Solo Loop. And a new Now Playing widget will be available for the Control Center that lists recently played albums that you might want to listen to again when nothing else is playing.

    If you’re wondering what has become of iOS 14.1, Apple could be planning to install it on the new iPhone 12 models just before release. That should happen sometime next month.

    Lees ook:

  • Shazam finally adds Apple Music integration on Android

    Shazam finally adds Apple Music integration on Android

    It’s been almost two years since Apple acquired Shazam, the music recognition software that everyone installs on their phones. To this day, Shazam would allow Android users to connect to the Spotify app to add songs to playlists or even play them within the app.

    Apple Music users must have been frustrated that Shazam doesn’t feature integration with their favorite music streaming service, even after the app was bought by the Cupertino-based company.

    Luckily, things are about to change for the better. Apple Music integration is now making its way to Shazam users on Android. When you receive the update that adds the new feature, you should be able to see the Apple Music option in the Settings menu of the Shazam app. Simply tap the Connect button next to the service and if you have an active subscription, you’ll be able to share playlists and play songs recognized by Shazam.

    At the moment, it’s unclear whether this is a server-side or a straightforward update that you can download from the Google Play Store. What we do know is that even Shazam users with a slightly older version of the app installed have started to see this feature on their Android phones.

    Lees ook:

  • Apple’s Shazam app updated with new Pop Up functionality

    Apple’s Shazam app updated with new Pop Up functionality

    Recently acquired by Apple, Shazam is bringing new features to its users, although this time only Android users will benefit from the changes. A new Pop Up functionality has just been added to Shazam for Android, which will allow users to identify songs playing in third-party apps without having to leave the app.

    In order to benefit from the new feature, you’ll have to enable a new floating button that is overlaid on the screen. When the new button is enabled, you will see a persistent notification in the notification drawer, which can be used to trigger it. Whenever you wish to use Shazam to identify a song, simply tap on the Pop Up floating button.

    Of course, you will be able to dismiss both the button and the persistent notification by simply dragging the button at the lower part of the screen to make it disappear. If you want to make the persistent notification go away, you will have to switch off feature from the Shazam settings menu or by swiping down the notification and tap on Turn Off.

    The new Pop Up functionality is available in the latest version of Shazam for Android, which has already been uploaded in the Google Play Store. If you have the app installed, a new update should be available for download.

    Lees ook:

  • Apple buys song recognition app Shazam

    Apple buys song recognition app Shazam

    Apple said Monday that it would buy leading song recognition app Shazam in a fresh bid to secure an edge in the intensifying battle of streaming services.

    Apple, whose streaming service has rapidly grown but still has only half the paid subscribers of Spotify, said that Shazam has consistently been one of the most popular items on its App Store.

    The two companies did not disclose financial terms. The technology news sites Recode and TechCrunch, quoting unnamed sources, both put the deal at around $400 million.

    The market signaled its approval, with Apple share prices jumping 2.0 percent, well outpacing the 0.2 percent rise on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

    “Apple Music and Shazam are a natural fit, sharing a passion for music discovery and delivering great music experiences to our users,” Apple said in a statement.

    London-based Shazam said in a separate statement: “We can’t imagine a better home for Shazam to enable us to continue innovating and delivering magic for our users.”

    Shazam, which was founded in 1999 in the early age of online music, has offered a solution to a longtime agony of listeners — putting a name to elusive songs. With a click, the app identifies tracks playing on the radio, at parties or as background music.

    But Shazam has struggled to find a way to make money off its technology, even as it said that it had reached one billion downloads on smartphones last year.

    Shazam only recently announced it had become profitable, thanks to advertising and steering traffic to other sites such as Spotify and Apple Music.

    The technology is also no longer quite as novel, with Shazam facing rivals such as SoundHound and with smartphones capable of ever more advanced recognition functions.

    Mark Mulligan, who writes a popular blog on the music industry, described Shazam as “cool tech without a business model” and said Apple was a rare player that could bring out the app’s value.

    Facing tough competition

    The world’s most valuable publicly traded company, Apple earns most of its revenue from iPhones but has also found it vital to be seen on the cutting edge culturally.

    Apple, which revolutionized online music a generation earlier with iTunes, in 2015 launched Apple Music as the market turns to streaming, which offers unlimited on-demand listening.

    Apple said in September that the service had more than 30 million subscribers — a quick rise, but still trailing Spotify.

    Spotify — which has emphasized a barebones, user-friendly interface instead of unique features — said it had 60 million paying users as of July and 80 million more on its free tier.

    And with streaming experiencing rapid growth, competition has become even fiercer.

    Retail giant Amazon seized on its vast consumer reach as it launched its own streaming service last year.

    YouTube, the video-sharing behemoth owned by Apple’s rival Google, also has its own music streaming platform and recent reports said it was looking to launch a new paid subscription package next year.

    Tech battle turns to services

    Shazam has already proven it can be woven into another service. A year ago, it formed a partnership with SnapChat, the youth-driven social media platform whose videos evaporate, with users able to “snap” to friends the music they discover around them on Shazam.

    Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, said the Shazam sale “underlines the fact that the battle of the technology companies is firmly moving beyond hardware and into services.”

    “This is a good move for Apple that helps to consolidate its already strong position in music content. It won’t be the last takeover of a tech firm by these big giants,” he said.

    Apple has already invested in buying big-name music brands, in 2014 paying an eye-popping $3 billion for Beats Electronics, the headphones, speaker and streaming brand of rapper Dr. Dre.

    Soon afterward, it bought Semetric, a British company that tracks music consumption on behalf of labels and artists.

    Lees ook: