Shazam
SoundHound V’s Shazam….
Jun 16th
Browsing the Android market yesterday I came across SoundHound, a music ID service similar to Shazam but with a difference, it will identify you humming or singing a song as well as recorded music. So I thought I’d give it a try, compare it to Shazam and share my thoughts.
Click on the images to enlarge…..
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- SoundHound Home
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- Shazam Home
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- SoundHound Listening
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- Shazam Listening
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- SoundHound Match
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- Shazam Match
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- SoundHound matches Singing
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- Shazam Singing Fail
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- SoundHound History
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- shazam history
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- SoundHound Share
Visually I prefer SoundHound until it comes to the history page, where Shazam’s use of album art wins. With regards to the overall functionality of the app again I prefer SoundHound, the ‘eye candy’ whilst listening to a track is far nicer than that of Shazam, showing the feedback from the mic as it listens.
SoundHound also offers the ability to share the track you have just found via email or Twitter, a function not found in Shazam. It also offers the option to tag a track that you hum or sing, which amazingly worked as I casually sang ‘Angels’ by Robbie Williams at my Nexus One.
Both Apps carry ads to support them, but with SoundHound you only get 5 tags per month (sharing tracks to Twitter will get you an extra 3) at which point it will cost £3.38 ($4.99) to upgrade to the premium version which will allow unlimited tags and will be ad free. Shazam on the other hand gives you unlimited tags (AFAIK) and there is no option to upgrade and remove the ads.
I am typically a low user so 5 tags will be enough for me, but a one off cost of £3.38 isn’t too bad if it will recognise tracks in my head….
SoundHound wins overall for me….
SoundHound over Shazam:
Positives
- visually pleasing UI
- Tag share via email or Twitter
- Lyrics displayed
- Hum, sing, speak or type a song
Negatives
- limited tags
In reply to my Shazam gripe!
Jul 8th
Back in June I moaned about having to pay for Shazam for the BlackBerry whilst I could use their service completely free on the G1, in my haste I removed Shazam from the Bold as I couldn’t use it without paying yet I am told it is still free from numerous sources including Shazam, and that I will have limited use of the app + adverts unless I pay up.
For some reason I couldn’t use the app whatsoever without payment and I hadn’t used it for a while so I couldn’t have reached the limits set by Shazam. So I guess I’ll have to install it again and give it another go!
As mentioned I emailed Shazam and this is the response they gave:
“We make significant investments in developing applications for each platform and we always try to find the right balance so we may offer Shazam to the masses in an affordable and fair way.
We believe that Shazam is a compelling and popular service for music lovers, and feedback from our existing customers has indicated that they would be very happy to pay a small fee for the Shazam service. However, we’ve looked at how they use Shazam and have recognized that users have different requirements.
There will always be a free Shazam service - on a limited usage and feature set - supported by advertising with an upgrade path for a full-featured version with a small up-front fee or pay a monthly subscription for a premium service. In time, we expect to have this pricing model consistent across all the platforms that host the Shazam application."
So there we have it! more info over @ Shazam!
Shazam for BlackBerry
Jun 23rd
Here’s a classic example of sublime madness, to enjoy Shazam on my BlackBerry I have to hand over some of my hard earned! Where as I can have it for free on my G1! So for now I’ll delete Shazam from my BlackBerry and review it on the G1 at a later date!
I have emailed Shazam customer support regarding this so I’ll post back when I hear from them!
