Music app Shazam expands fan connections to all musicians

Originally, Shazam helped listeners identify music they were listening too and liked. Now the app will let your favorite artists recommend tracks, too.

Earlier this summer, Shazam began its verified-artist program with 30 artists including Alicia Keys, Maroon 5 and One Direction. When the artists would "Shazam" a track — turn the app "on" to listen to recorded music on radio, TV or elsewhere — it would pop up in the app's home screen feed of their followers.  Since then, nearly 200 more musicians such as Ed Sheeran, David Guetta, Pharrell and Sam Smith have come on board.

Now, all artists from independent singer-songwriters to football-stadium headliners can become verified and let fans know what music — new and old — they are listening to. "Shazam is the only place that you can connect with these artists ... (and) discover great music in one place," said Shazam chief product officer Daniel Danker. "We want all artists, big and small, to share their discoveries."

Among the first apps available for the iPhone in 2008, Shazam remains a free app, but has evolved from a basic music identification service. Now when you "shazam" a song, Shazam can connect you with multiple ways to listen or buy the song on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify or other services such as Pandora or Rdio and possibly see lyrics or a video.

When a verified artist Shazams a song, "literally you have gotten a little sneak peek into their lives," Danker said. "Maybe they Shazamed it because they hadn’t heard it before or maybe they just wanted to pump up an artist they like. (When Sheeran Shazams), he just said that to 36 million people."

Artists aren't paid for sharing their interests, he says. "The artists have to want to do it. The reaction from pretty much every artist has been, 'This is a music-centric way to reach out to some of my best fans.' And they already use Shazam," Danker said. "We want to keep it authentic."

There are ways artists can benefit in the long run, since Shazam has links to let you buy and listen to tracks outside of the app. And Shazam will also alert you when an artist you to artists' new releases and upcoming concerts.

When Shazam initially unveiled the verified artist feature in June, Mashable's Chris Perkins said, "For artists, this product gives a new way to interact with fans." Singer Adam Lambert, another of the early Shazam-verified artists, agreed in an interview with Mashable: "I'm on social media blasting out [to fan's] songs all the time, so I think this will be a more practical hands-on thing."

The feature has been popular with Shazam users as the current crop of verified artists have gathered 1.4 billion followers, collectively. Shazam has seen its base of monthly users rise 40% to 120 million monthly active users from 86 million at the beginning of 2014, Danker said.

Shazam already has "hundreds of artists queued up" to join the program, he says. Other artists who are interested can go to shazam.com/verify to get approved.

"We are going to go from hundreds of artists to tens of thousands who are verified very quickly, so you will start seeing this really come to life," he said. "So if you start scrolling through your home screen you will probably see some pretty interesting tracks that are being Shazamed by artists."

Since its beginnings as an identification app for identifying recorded music, Shazam has moved into TV audio tagging on TV series and live events including this past week's MTV Video Music Awards. Shazam also has added visual IDs to some Apple Music posters at bus stops and in other public places. By using the camera with the Shazam app open it identifies the artist.