How does Shazam work?

"When you call in, our system creates a 'fingerprint' of the sound coming in from your mobile and then searches through the 'fingerprint' database for a match."

So it cover it in dust, blows it clean etc.....

that's why background noise doesn't make a difference

ihttp://www.splashcomics.de/images/portraits/charaktere/whoiswho_shazam_1.jpg

Our theory was that some music genius sits on the other end and recognizes what's playing.

I wish it would expand to the US.

i always wondered how much of the pcm gracenote was using, i assumed the first 5 seconds or something because if you chop out the first couple seconds of a pcm or mp3 the CDDB won't read it. but maybe gracenote is storing a lot more than that and Shazam is doing some sort of fancy error correction and closest-matching to gracenote??

note: i am pretty far out of my technical league here.

Shazam certainly can't find all songs. I've found it no good on some older stuff.

the one in turkey is called 'Nebucalan'
i suppose this also corresponds with a wizard or some shit...

just subscribed - £2 per mth for 30 songs, can't believe i haven't done this before. still kinda hazy on how it works but love it.

it now has around 4m songs - anyone wager a guess as to how many recorded western pop (inc punk, rock, dance, etc) songs from say 1950 onwards there are in total?

friend uses the iphone app constantly. doesn't always work, but is surprisingly good. i'm not sure if she paid for the app itself, but she doesn't pay a subscription fee as far as i know.

oops its actually 300 songs per month, much better than 55p per song id'd. i think the iphone app gives a free month but after that it's either £2 or £4.50 a month. first time i used it was a real 'wow this is the future right now' moment. the website is a real pain to navigate, mind.

Here's a description of how a possible Shazam-type system could work - very brief summary: split the song into small data chunks (less than 1 second); use very low quality sampling so each chunk can be encoded simply as a small integer, and won't be sensitive to noise or even slight shifts in the start and end times of chunks; store the chunks in a bog-standard database and use simple string searching to get matches.
http://musicbrainz.org/doc/FutureProofFingerPrint

This app alone has me drooling for an iPhone. If nothing else, it would keep me from running down to my office computer and checking IMDB every time I hear a song I like while watching a movie.
I was at Fenway Park with a buddy last fall and we had standing-room-only seats way on top of the centerfield bleachers. He took the phone out while a song was blaring over the PA and Shazam recognized it within seconds. I was amazed that it could pick the song out among the loud crowd noise. And where we were sitting, the PA sounded very muffled.

Shazam works by taking deltas of spectral envelope peaks in time. It needs about 10 or so deltas to identify a track. A spectral envelope is sort of a statistical reduction of the "spectrogram view" you can see in many audio apps or bad 90s trance album covers. A peak of such would be a local maximum of energy. A delta of such would be the distance in both frequency and time between two successive peaks. It's actually quite simple and works very well, only on the actual recorded version of a track (not a live version, cover, or through effects)

if you only have 10 or so seconds of a song playing during the call to shazam (it usually asks for 20) is it likely it'll still work? im going to try it out on b/g music on some tv shows, see what happens.

jazzbo, you don't need an iphone to use this - unless it's not available where you live?

i wonder if they update their song database with unreleased but easily available songs on blogs and myspace

If I were designing a song ID system, the first thing I'd think about is how to use quick regression techniques.

This'll be lost in all the Grammy stories today I figure but:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/technology/14shazam.html

Some interesting stuff there. I'm kinda still surprised at what songs don't turn up.

to answer the op http://www.ee.columbia.edu/~dpwe/papers/Wang03-shazam.pdf

FOR G33KS ONLY.

Now there's yer info.

combinatorially hashed time-frequency constellation analysis

be still, my heart

Wonder if this was the plan for the service from the beginning?

In recent months, logos for music-identifying service Shazam have popped up in Procter & Gamble, Honda or American Express commercials. Progressive Insurance, Starbucks and Paramount have also linked to mobile content through Shazam tags in their commercials or web videos. The ads prompt viewers to launch Shazam with the company's logo or a call-out, and if they do, the app brings up links their websites, discounts or other goodies.

One of the earliest users is Old Navy. The retailer's chief marketing officer, Amy Curtis-McIntyre, talked about the company's Shazam ads at Ad Age's Digital Conference this past spring. When consumers used the app to identify any of the songs heard in Old Navy spots, styling tips, deals and key looks featured in the commercial popped up.

So why exactly are so many advertisers rushing to use the listening technology?

"Fundamentally [these apps] give you a way to quantify engagement in an environment where there haven't been many metrics others than ratings or call center calls," said Sloan Broderick, director-innovations for MediaCom.

"What Shazam for TV is doing is, instead of remembering a URL or going to a Facebook page, viewers just click the little button [in the app] and they're there," said Evan Krauss, exec VP-advertising sales for Shazam.

http://www.wired.com/business/2014/02/warner-mines-shazam/

websites for radio programmers like hits daily double often talk about shazam tag chart rankings when discussing emerging records now. some rolling stone article talked about it too - seems to be The Thing now. a shazam-branded label seems kinda weird but who knows, maybe it will work out.

who up in here is watching this Fox game show “Beat Shazam” tonight with ILX’s OWN DJP and HIS AMAZING WIFE

I’m hollering at the television

Thankfully I'd already set the dvr for it. My television decided to completely crap out yesterday, so I won't be able to watch until I hook my new one up later in the week. NO SPOILERS!!

fuuuuuck! yes!

hope he namedrops "cookie pimp"

started this from the beginning. DJP got some moooooooves!

hahaha oh noooo country

omg what?

Yeah, I was all like: these poor other contestants, competing against one of ours! But then country happened.

fyi for anyone not cursed/blessed with american network television: https://www.fox.com/beat-shazam/

today’s episode is the 10th

i'm impressed with how quickly I knew these Aguilera songs

BOOOOOOOM

btw i will not be postin spoilers don'tw orry

[post edited to likewise remove spoilaz]

(Kinda can't stand the manic pace of these newfangled shows where they edit out every nanosecond of silence.)

I couldn't identify one of my own songs in 1.53 seconds.

This is stressful to watch!

my idiot brain is horrible at connecting song titles when they show possible titles based on actual lyrics in the song. surely the title is the next phrase that will be sung after I hit the buzzer

yeah with my anxiety even songs I know well my brain scrambles in that first 1.5 seconds. timing games = too much pressure

DJP's wife's opera singing was awes

Absolutely. This is wonderful. Well done both of you.

This is fucking amazing! Joei’s singing!!

Even they can't believe how fast they were! ⏰ #BeatShazam pic.twitter.com/gvNliFj8up

— Beat Shazam (@BeatShazamFOX) August 15, 2018

i had no idea DJP was so hotttt!

this show title is really misleading... I'm not sure if a human could actually beat Shazam.

That said, it's really fun to watch if you've got someone to root for.

Man, that country section is a killer

are you kidding me? I have shazamed songs near a playing speaker and remembered the title before it came up with an answer!

xp

I am surprised to learn that Shazam has been around since 2002.

This was ridiculously fun, you guys

you guys ruled!

Oh god we have to watch a game show on-demand now

you two kicked ass

I've thought a couple of times recently how I've been missing his posts, so that was a good Dan fix. There's a clip on YT too

dangit, i can't get my password to work to watch the episode! i want to watch!!

that twitter GIF jeff posted, though <3

She has a voice of an angel! 👼 #BeatShazam pic.twitter.com/eSk2Jrushm

— Beat Shazam (@BeatShazamFOX) August 15, 2018

yesss

This was all the greatness.

magic. tv magic

country section was wack

Very

I kept waiting for Cocteau Twins, but alas.

“Category iiiis .... Eighties Post Punk Goth!!!!”
cut to: Perrys dancing over corpses of competitors

lol

holy fuck i had no idea Shazam was so old

I am still tripping that my wife just sang on national television

can she sing on my tv every night plz

If I could second.

omg. this is amazing. that clip KM posted. <3 <3 <3

where can i watch the whole thing??

There's a link upthread but as a UK type I'm locked out - I'm guessing there's probably nowhere for me to access it for free?

Also cosign whoever said Dan was hot! You guys are such an awesome couple <3

OMG. You guys <3

Emily, I found a t0rr3nt so us Europeans can admire teh hotness, I put it here.

Woah, I switched this on around Aguilera. I didn’t know I was watching an irl ilxor. Props 2 u DJP.

Everytime I watch this show I inevitably complain about how the music taste is aimed at one well-rounded music fan that is a mish-mosh of the type of people that would watch this show. Whenever my type of category pops up I get frustrated that they pick a band/song that despite it’s sucess is still fucking Bon Jovi.

That was awesome, miss DJP on ILX, glad to get such a sweet fix.

was this series 2 episode 10?

Thanks Le Bateau!

Correct jed

DJP the look on Jamie Foxx's face when your wife started singing is THE GREATEST. ILXors slaying on national TV.

11-YEAR-OLD BEEPS: So how do you know these people again?

SS/PP: It's a long story. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Did they win any cash?

<3 <3 <3

this is so awesome!!!

That was cool.

WGW yes

11-YEAR-OLD BEEPS: So how do you know these people again?

SS/PP: It's a long story. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

― pplains

haha this is great

congrats to DJP family

DJP the look on Jamie Foxx's face when your wife started singing is THE GREATEST. ILXors slaying on national TV.

― Eliza D., Wednesday, August 15, 2018 8:48 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

When this happened DJP was all "otm"

saw the clip that was posted via DJP/twitter when I woke up at 5am this morning.
best wake up/check twitter experience ever.

The J&D Team made it look easy. I wouldn't have the reflexes. Instead, I was treating the game like it was an episode of Password. "UH, THE DOORS, JIM MORRISON, LOVE HER MADLY, UM, THE SOFT PARADE, TOUCH ME, IT'S TOUCH ME."

I said "Maybe there'll be a category for The Cure?" and then mansplained to Sunny how DJP's a big Cure fan, since she's not on ILM much. "You don't have to follow ILM to know DJP likes The Cure," she said.

If Sunny and I were on there, you could likely expect her to put her hands up halfway through it and say to me, "OK, you know what? How 'bout you finish this off since you're such an expert." And then I would get every answer wrong.

Country section was a rip-off. Had there not been a Prince question already, I would've called it a ... Conspiracy.

Some of those 'country' songs, too. I was all like, 'okay, so even if the track in question is an avant garde sound sculpture, it's still somehow considered country because it was recorded by Carrie Underwood?'

(NB, I'm about as far out of the loop wrt contemporary pop country as it's possible to be.)

"country" section was so rigged

ta for the upload LBI, that was really kind of you.
i loved watching the J&D Team (yeah, I'm using that),
i actually got all emo as i had massive, but still beer fuzzed up, memory flashbacks to the one wonderful evening i was able to spend in Chicago with DJP talking about shriekback etc in 2010.
the gorgeous bastard has not aged one bit.
and damn, J can sing.
what a lovely treat that was.