Shazam followers hit 2bn, announces faster recognition

Music discovery app Shazam has revealed its 600 verified artists have reached 2 billion followers collectively. Artists include David Guetta, Coldplay and Maroon 5.

The pioneer in music-identification technology also unveiled features to make audio-identification and learning about tracks and artists quicker. It now claims to have the fastest-ever audio-identification speeds over rivals as SoundHound, Google Sound Search, Microsoft’s Bing Music identification and Sony Track ID

“Our research team works continually to improve our recognition technology, and our latest release significantly reduces the amount of time required to get a result, making this our fastest Shazam experience ever,” said Charles Henrich, its Chief Technology Officer.

The new Search feature allows fans around the world to discover an artist’s music, videos and lyrics. They can also find the artist’s own Shazam discoveries and follow the artist for more — for free on any device, without signing up.

Shazam launched in 2002 in the US (but now headquartered in London), allowing users to find out what artist and song is playing merely by hitting a button. The app searches through its database, including jingles, movie trailers and TV soundtracks. It comes up with the name of the song being played, which album it came from, a profile of the artist and other songs recorded by them. The paid version allows the track to be downloaded.

It claims 120 million monthly users, who use it 20 million times a day. It didn’t turn a profit until 2006. From pioneering music identification, it now allows users to discover, interact with, and share video, audio, or printed content on TV, radio, movie screens, magazines, newspapers, packaged goods, and retail stores . In October 2014, it announced its technology has been used to identify 15 billion songs.

In 2013, it opened an office in Australia as the gateway for its expansion into the Asia Pacific. “Australia is a forward thinking, tech-savvy and innovative media marketplace,” CEO Andrew Fisher said at the time.

In June 2015, Shazam was valued as a US$1 billion company after a new round of funding for $30 million. It is double what it was worth last year.