Apple Announces Shazam Has Identified More Than 100 Billion Songs

[Edd70]

Shazam has always been my favorite app. Integration with iOS made it better just being able to ask Siri "What song is this?". Works great for me, even in restaurants with background noise, I'm surprised by the complaints I'm seeing here.

 

[vegetassj4]

Did someone say Billion? Timmy is going to be very happy with this:

 

[SoldOnApple]

When I use the Shazam widget in control centre, why doesn't the detection get added to my Shazam history? I was "adding" songs for years before I noticed.

 

[wanha]

May sound stupid, but this still amazes me that this actually works and started all those years back. For me, a definite "WOW" moment.

Way back when I still worked at Nokia, I met the Shazam guys who demoed us their technology.

They explained to me that they measured the vectors between notes to identify each song (or something to that effect). They said that this meant that it could identify the song even if you slowed it down or sped it up or even if you hummed or whistled the tune accurately enough.

It's always been cool tech.

Shame Apple hasn't done more with it over the years

 

[apple contributor]

Perhaps it's just me but I don't think it works as well as it did prior to its acquisition by Apple. Before it was acquired, the thing was dead accurate even in really noisy environments. Now it seems like there almost has to be no background noise for it to work.

I don’t know; once, I used it in a REALLY noisy restaurant, and I got the answer in seconds. Then, I was using in the most quiet café I’ve ever been, and nothing 🤷‍♂️

 

[apple contributor]

I’m still waiting for a tool that helps me when I have a melody stuck in my head that I can whistle or hum, but can’t for the life of me remember what it is from.

Me too. I usually just try to remember some words, or I write them on my hand if I have a pen nearby, and then search the internet. Works 50% of the time.

 

[cjbryce]

Shazam to me is one of those tools I don't use much but when I do, it's absolutely amazing, always recognizes what I throw at it.

Yep this^^

One question though about the PR puff headline - I'm sure they actually mean 100 billion uses of Shazam, which is quite impressive. They do not report the number of individual tracks identified (although I presume that'll be impressively high too as surely 100Bn searches weren't made for the same 10 songs🤣)

 

[klasma]

I don’t know; once, I used it in a REALLY noisy restaurant, and I got the answer in seconds. Then, I was using in the most quiet café I’ve ever been, and nothing 🤷‍♂️

Internet connection quality might be a factor.

 

[klasma]

(although I presume that'll be impressively high too as surely 100Bn searches weren't made for the same 10 songs🤣)

I’ve used it on songs not in the top 100, so can confirm that it must be more than a 100 different songs.

 

[xander49x]

Shazam does not work on my iPhone, and SoundHound sucks also. neither will identify songs. Shazam was great until Apple started messing with it.

 

[HMI]

I’m delighted and honored to be 4 of those.

 

[Caviar_X]

SoundHound is much better and integrates w/ Spotify.

 

[Tagbert]

I've had more misses than its with this. And when you ask it to re-do the search, it will just bring you down a rabbit hole of songs that are unlike what you searched for.

Someone thought it sensible to have the results of a search disappear from your UI/screen in seconds. So you have to act quickly, grab a screenshot. What an absolutely stupid idea.

It keeps a history of songs. Look under “My Music” and tap on “Songs”. You’ll see a date-sorted list of the songs it has recognized. I think you can get that as a playlist in Apple Music.

 

[svish]

Good to know. Shazam is a very useful app. I use it frequently.

 

[scorpio vega]

Not me not knowing what this country ass song was but Shazam came through like a beast lol

 

[hugogogo2003]

Arguably, the Shazam top 100 must be the 100 most forgettable songs.

Do you Shazam songs that you never want to listen to again and will forget about right after shazaming? Odd! Most people I know use Shazam because they love the song and they want to find out what it is and add to their music libraries 🤷‍♀️

 

[hugogogo2003]

Seeing the same recycled pop content has the opposite effect for me. This is essentially a playlist of retail radio.

If you saw what the top 100 of music played in France (where I'm from), you'd understand my concern. 90% of it is the same horrible autotuned rap song. This Shazam list is at least varied and there are a few actual melodies (even if it's very very commercial)

 

[daabido]

If only Apple Music suggestions weren’t still ridiculously bad.

 

[klasma]

Do you Shazam songs that you never want to listen to again and will forget about right after shazaming? Odd! Most people I know use Shazam because they love the song and they want to find out what it is and add to their music libraries 🤷‍♀️

It was a joke. You’d shazam a song where you forgot its name and by who it was. The joke is the assumption that this would be the majority use case for shazaming because “obviously” you wouldn’t shazam a song that you haven’t forgotten.

 

[MrGimper]

Not a single rap song in there restores my faith in humanity's music preferences.

That's because it only identifies music