Shazam redesigns content platform
Music recognition app Shazam has unveiled a full redesign as a content platform for artists, shows and brands.
The announcement:
MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – 26 February 2014 – Shazam® today unveiled the full extent of the major app redesign launched earlier this month. The new experience changes the way that people will interact with the app, part of a larger strategy to make Shazam the beginning of the journey – not the end – whether people are interested in music, TV shows or brands.
“The redesign we’re unveiling today is part of a fundamental evolution in our consumer experience. With these changes, Shazam is evolving to become a destination experience and content platform for artists, shows and brands,” said Rich Riley, Chief Executive Officer at Shazam. “People will always be able to use Shazam in the way they know and love – to identify almost any song amazingly fast and purchase or share that song.. Shazam’s new content-rich design, coupled with the recently launched News Feed and the effortlessness of Auto Shazam, give users powerful reasons to spend a lot more time with Shazam and to use it every day..”
Over the coming weeks, Shazam’s iOS and Android users will see a new Shazam result that creates a deeper, richer experience. The new look is currently rolling out to users around the world, with a brand new experience for music and television results with easy access to previewing, buying, and sharing a track. In the coming weeks, new additions will also include:
· Quick access to lyrics with a preview as soon as a track is matched, and with direct access to the music video and additional videos related to a song;
· Recommendations unique to Shazam;
· Lightning fast access to the most important information about any show broadcast on over 160 TV channels in the US: music in the show, cast and crew, and more;
· More engaging biographies and discographies, making it easy to go from discovering a great track to learning about and experiencing more from the band.
Together with the News Feed and Auto Shazam, recent updates to Shazam have given people a reason to spend more time in the app.
· Since the launch of Auto Shazam in December, people have spent 2.6 million hours – or over 100k days – effortlessly identifying music and television around them. In fact, nearly 40% of Auto Shazam matches have been for TV.
· The Shazam News Feed has been used to promote major televised events such as the Country Music Awards, Grammys and Super Bowl, helping drive viewership. When a user holds their hand up in the air to Shazam, they’re showing real intent — real interest in that content. So with the News Feed, Shazam is able to reach back out to users based on past connections they’ve created with artists, bands, and brands. The News Feed has also been used to stream exclusive content; this month, Shazam hosted both the world premiere for the new Chromeo video and premiered a new track by Wiz Khalifa.
Last week, Shazam also announced a key new partnership with Warner Music Group that included a joint-venture label for unsigned acts as well as an enhanced marketing collaboration across WMG’s roster of artists. A Shazam-branded imprint will identify artists for support and development by combining WMG’s global A&R expertise with Shazam proprietary data, provided in real time and broken down by highly focused geographies and detailed trend analysis. In turn, WMG will provide Shazam with exclusive content and other benefits to enhance the user experience, providing more reasons for Shazam to be a key app in any music fan’s mobile device.
The new Shazam experience is available in the Free and Encore versions for iPhone. It comes with Auto Shazam, which enables users to automatically identify the media around them, and the News Feed, which presents users with content from their favorite artists, shows, and friends’ Shazam discoveries. This new experience will also launch on Android devices in the coming weeks.
Source: Hotwire PR press release
