The Download Blog

(Credit: Shazam)

Shazam, which has long been helping users identify songs, artists, and albums on other mobile platforms like the iPhone, BlackBerry phones, Nokia phones, and Android devices, now makes its Windows Mobile app store debut as a freemium application. That is, anyone can use the basics for free, but a few more-advanced features will cost you.

Here's what you can do for free: When you activate Shazam and hold the phone near the source of the recorded music, the app checks the sample against Shazam's online database and returns suggestions to you. The app also leads you to opportunities to buy the song if you'd like. You'll get five chances a month to identify songs.

A one-time fee of $4.69 gets you unlimited searches, called "tagging" in Shazam's lexicon. The premium version, called Shazam Encore, also features popularity charts for all songs tagged by all users, artist and band bios, a discography, and music and albums reviews. It will also include an Amazon-like recommendation feature that suggests songs based on your other preferences.

Shazam's freemium model is the first the company has attempted , though CEO Andrew Fisher notes that Shazam is sold as a premium app in 70 percent of its worldwide markets. Factoring in exchange rates, Shazam sells for the equivalent of $5 on most platforms. So does a major mobile competitor, Midomi, which already offers a rival product (that also lets you hum or sing a tune) on the same mobile platforms. In fact, Midomi costs $4.99 in the Windows phone marketplace.

Music lovers will get to try Shazam Encore for free on Windows phones. After seven days, they can pay to upgrade or can continue using the basic features five times a month. Fisher told us that Shazam users tag an average of 10 songs per month.

Shazam will roll out to the Windows Marketplace for Mobile in English in 30 countries, with multilanguage support expected to follow some weeks later. It wasn't in our Marketplace at the time of writing, but we'll keep you posted.

Related: See how Shazam works on iPhone.

Shazam 1.7 does more than just identify songs.

(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)

Shazam has fast become one of those must-have apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Not only can you use it for song identification, you can then recommend that song to a friend via e-mail, or watch a related music video on YouTube, or purchase the song via iTunes. You can also add a photo to the music tag for a visual reminder of where you first heard the song.

Well, along with the iPhone OS 3.0 firmware update, Shazam also released version 1.7, which has a number of added features. It now integrates with the GPS function on your iPhone to mark the exact location from which you first tagged a song, thus allowing you to see your musical journey of sorts laid out on a map. In addition to sharing a music tag with a friend, you can now send it as a postcard that lets your friends buy the songs you discovered. If you want wider dissemination of the song, you can also configure Shazam to post the artist and track details to your Twitter account.

iPod Touch first- and second-generation owners will be glad to know that Shazam 1.7 also now supports the MacAlly iVoice III external microphone. Other improvements include better scrolling, clearer highlights, and improved speed.

Mobile-music discovery provider Shazam announced on Thursday that it has increased its music database from 6 million tracks to 8 million tracks, thanks to new partnerships with record labels.

Shazam, which provides the fourth most popular Apple App Store download of 2008, behind competitor Pandora, at No. 1, analyzes songs playing through a stereo or radio, and displays the song's title, artist, biographical information, and a link to purchase the track.

According to the company, the new tracks added to the library include additional North American, Asian, and European content, and will be linked to Shazam's existing products, which, in addition to an iPhone application includes one built for Google's Android mobile operating system.

"With our music alliances, we gain access to the most relevant music well before many other services, which ensures that users can discover popular and niche music all over the globe," Will Mills, Shazam's head of music, said in a statement.

With the addition of 2 million tracks to its discovery engine, Shazam has become even more compelling. Although it works extremely well, my single gripe with the application is that its library is too small, and at times, it isn't able to recognize songs. But now that Shazam has added tracks to its database, the company contends that those issues won't arise as often now.

The 2 million new tracks have been added to Shazam's database, and no additional app installation is required to access them.

Shazam, the mobile music discovery provider made popular on the iPhone, announced Tuesday the launch of its mobile application for the Android platform.

Android users will be able to "discover" a song and connect to Amazon's MP3 store to buy it or network with the artist through MySpace.

Shazam is one of the most popular applications in Apple's App Store. After downloading Shazam onto the iPhone, people can hold their device toward an unknown song while the application is running. In just a few seconds, the Shazam technology will recognize the song and provide information about the track, artist, and album. On the iPhone, people can download the songs on iTunes. But considering that Android-based phones won't run Apple's platform, Shazam opted for Amazon's MP3 store instead.

MySpace will also be an integral component in the experience created by Shazam on the Android platform. According to the company, people can connect to their MySpace page in the application and "friend" the artist they just discovered, as long as they have a profile on the social network.

"Shazam aims to help users to create and share unique music moments and long-lasting experiences, and the Android application combined with our link to the Amazon MP3 store and MySpace enables us to deliver on this vision," said Andrew Fisher, CEO of Shazam.

So far, Shazam has been quite successful doing just that. According to its internal figures, its iPhone app has been downloaded by 1.5 million users since its release.

Can't get a song out of your head and don't know what it's called? There are two good applications for iPhone that will fetch song titles and artists when curiosity begins to gnaw.

Shazam for iPhone (see video) grabs song, title, and album information after 30 seconds of listening to a recording. If YouTube videos are available, you'll be able to download them in a click from the results page. When or if you're ready to buy, the application also integrates with the iTunes music store, which will gladly bill your account for the song.

Broader still is Midomi for iPhone (coverage), which supplies singing, hummimg, speaking, and typing as input options in addition to recording a 10 second song clip. Either way you phrase your request, Midomi will return similar artist details, video, and iTunes lookup results.