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We’re still big fans of the Shazam music-recognition app, which is ideal for identifying sizzling new tunes as we get down with our bad self in a hot club (translation: as we sit on our sofa watching TV ads while scoffing a Pot Noodle). Now Shazam is going social, with the help of Facebook.
You could already share details of individual songs you tagged on Facebook, but a new feature called Shazam Friends goes further. It gets you to sign in to Facebook once, and then adds a Friends tab to the Shazam app — it works on the iPhone today, but will be added to Android in the coming weeks.
What you’ll find under this tab is a feed of every song your Facebook friends have tagged, in reverse chronological order. Shazam says it’s updated in real time, too. Every tag can be tapped on to watch videos, buy the full songs, and stream them in Spotify, as long as you have its app, and the song is in its catalogue.
It’s the first time Shazam has really made an effort to get more social. Previously, tagging tunes has been more of a solo activity, with the ability to share on Twitter and Facebook coming later. Interestingly, the effect isn’t far off a new music-focused social network, except unlike Apple’s own Ping, Shazam is plumbed into Facebook from day one.
“Shazam Friends is a major step forward in social music sharing,” says CEO Andrew Fisher. “Our new feature not only allows Shazamers to see what their friends on Facebook are tagging, but they can also listen to the track and go on to purchase it.”
We tried it this morning, and none of our Facebook friends appear to have connected Shazam to their social profiles yet. It’s a two-stage process: you have to download the Shazam 4.0 update and then tap on the Friends tab to connect to Facebook. We wonder how quickly it will take off, since people may not realise there’s a new social feature until they first tag a track after downloading the update.
Even so, with 3 million songs tagged every day through Shazam, there’s no shortage of people out there using the app, so hopefully we’ll feel a little less Billy No-Mates as time goes on.
