I don’t own an iPhone, but I do own an iPod Touch so I’m hip to all the apps floating around out there, and this app alone is almost reason enough to buy an iPhone.
Shazam uses some sort of magical algorithm to identify any song that you play in the vicinity of your iPhone’s built in microphone. It’s perfect for naming that song you’re listening to on the radio. Initially, I figured that it was using a special tagging technology to pick up on the songs, but then my coworkers and I decided to put it through the ringer and were astounded by its accuracy.
We had a fellow coworker play several songs on the piano to see if it was indeed identifying melodies or simply the album version of a track. He played “Clair de Lune” – the first time it didn’t get it. Then we realized he was playing it in a different key than the original. He returned the piece to its original key and voilà – Shazam nailed it. He played Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” – right on the money. It was incredible. Next he tried a variety of rock tracks that it could not identify at which point we realized that the software is sensitive to instrumentation as well as key. It was able to get “Don’t Stop Believin’” because the opening is actually played on the piano on the recording, but if he played a melody that was supposed to be on guitar, it couldn’t figure it out. I’m not sure they’ll ever be able to transcend those limitations without a human ear listening, but the technology they’ve already achieved is incredible. The future has arrived.
Shazam gets 5 stars – well done. I encourage everyone to check out this free app on iTunes via the link below.
