Shazam Brings Back Unlimited Tagging in Free iPhone App

Music identification service Shazam was one of the early hits on the App Store, with the company's free iPhone application seeing 1.5 million downloads over the first few months of availability.

Shazam shifted gears slightly in November 2009, introducing a paid Shazam Encore application and limiting new users of the free application to only five tags per month. Users who had used the free application before that time were grandfathered in and have continued to have access to unlimited tagging.

But today, Shazam announced that it has brought back unlimited tagging for all users in the free application, relying on an ad-supported model.

Andrew Fisher, Shazam CEO said, “Shazamers already identify over 1 billion songs each year and go on to purchase over $100 million in digital music via our service. Now, with no limits, people can Shazam even more songs they don’t know – or they already know - to conveniently purchase them, see the lyrics, watch the official music video, share on Facebook, Twitter or email, get recommendations and purchase concert tickets instantly. Unlimited free access means people can use Shazam even more as part of their daily lives.”

The paid Shazam Encore continues to offer some benefits over the free application, including an ad-free experience and features such as LyricPlay, which allows users to view song lyrics as the tracks play.

Top Rated Comments

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xii

107 months ago

Isn't soundhound better? In my opinion it hits better.

Rating: 7 Votes

1080p

107 months ago

Meh. Soundhound is better. I can usually get Soundhound to detect music across the room with ambient room noise/chatter. Shazam usually cannot.

On average, I can get Soundhound to detect the song with 5-8 second snippets of music. Shazam needs MUCH more time.

And OG users will remember Soundhound as Midomi. :cool:

Rating: 6 Votes

interestedabit

107 months ago

Can I be *that whining git*? Just paid 5 euros for full version so I had unlimited tagging. Now this..

Oh well.

Not the end of the world. Just unlucky.

Rating: 3 Votes

jav6454

107 months ago

The whole grandfathered thing is bull crap. I was a user who downloaded Shazam when it came out.

I was grandfathered, but only for a short period. After which Shazam put a limit on me. Complete and utter BS. I dumped that crap and switched to SoundHound which gets it right always.

Oh, and SoundHound does not crash.

Rating: 2 Votes

BJMRamage

107 months ago

I got Shazam and SoundHound when both had a 5 song limit per month.
Then SoundHound switched to unlimited.
I used that almost exclusively.
Then I was given a FREE Shazam code (via Starbucks)
I now have unlimited for both and only used them each once since then.

Good for all users...except those that just bought the Encore version.

Rating: 1 Votes

Dr McKay

107 months ago

Can I be *that whining git*? Just paid 5 euros for full version so I had unlimited tagging. Now this..

Oh well.

Not the end of the world. Just unlucky.

Rating: 1 Votes

kingtj

107 months ago

Hmm....

I just got their premium version for free, via a Starbucks promotion code on one of those cards they give away in their stores.

Guess now, I know why they were so willing to give away a $6 application! :)

But this is still good news. I never liked the idea that they'd limit song detection to 5 tries per month or whatever. IMO, if you're one of these services, what you're REALLY doing is aiding the record companies with their sales. Why do most people CARE which song is playing? They like what they hear and want to know more about it, so they can go BUY it (or similar material from that same artist).

The recording industry should be helping offset the expenses for song tagging!

Rating: 1 Votes

saw1980

107 months ago

No grandfathering for me

Glad this is back. I was a user from the start, and was never grandfathered into the "unlimited". In fact, I pretty much quit using it when they did that, because the counter never reset at a month.

Rating: 1 Votes

RoelJuun

107 months ago

This is nice, it always amazes people when my phone tells them what song is playing.

Rating: 1 Votes

mijail

107 months ago

Hopefully now they can work on getting tagging to work a bit better!

In my experience Shazam already works much better than, say, SoundHound.

I was always using SoundHound in my first try to reserve Shazam's 5 songs per month, and lately SoundHound was typically failing. So Shazam will be now my first choice. Yay!

Rating: 0 Votes

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