Music Industry

How Shazam is Changing the Music Industry

Chance are that if you have a smartphone, you’ve downloaded Shazam, the magical app that “listens” to a song and then identifies for you. I use this thing a lot. The BBC reports on how Shazaming is changing the music industry.

“We’re a wonderful connector between fans and artists,” Daniel Danker says.

Shazam’s chief product officer is talking to Newsbeat about music’s relationship with technology.

“People don’t Shazam things they don’t like. They do it to the music they like but don’t recognise.”

Rachel Platten’s Fight Song has a lot to thank Shazam for. After the song was played on one American radio station it was shazamed so much she had a record deal within 72 hours.

“It’s really cool to go back in time looking at artists like Rachel Platten where we saw the spark,” Daniel says from his office in San Francisco.

“It just takes a small handful of Shazam’s for our algorithm to detect a change.

This is actually pretty cool. Keep going.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 39997 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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