Review: Shazam iD, TrackID is no longer just a Sony Ericsson thing
By Stefan Constantinescu on Sunday, November 11th, 2007 at 6:23 PM PST In Applications, Symbian
If you have a Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) device released in the past 2 years or so then you have a most awesome application on your device called TrackID. If you never used it before, here is what you’re missing out on: Once you open the TrackID application you can hold your phone up to a speaker playing a song and within a few seconds you have the name of the track, artist and album you’re currently listening to. This works with the radio as well so you don’t even have to take off your headphones in that situation.
I have long been an advocate that Nokia (NYSE: NOK) get off their ass and replicate this application for their S60 powered devices, but my complaints fell on deaf ears. That is until now.
How did I find out about it?
Reading Eldar’s review of the Samsung i450 he mentions Shazam iD about half way down the page.
Where did I find it?
I immediately went off on a quest to find this application, but my efforts were thwarted once I reached Shazam’s website. Not only does this company fail to provide a URL for a SIS file, you have to be a UK resident and send a premium SMS to get a download URL. Who do I know in the UK? The folks over at All About Symbian! I sent an email to both Rafe and Steve asking if they could help me out with this review by giving me the download URL and they did without hesitation, thanks guys.
Update: Some people are reporting problems with the link below, if that is the case please use this: http://s60.mobi/mgp/events/s60/vodafone/shazam.html
The link is http://www.shazam.com/shazamid and you have to visit it in your mobile web browser. This should make typing it out a lot less painful:
Let me convince you to download this!
Here is Shazam’s icon. I find it horrible, which is why I’m pointing it out, in hope that they change it in future versions:
The splash screen is the first image on the top of this post, here is what you see after that disappears:
When you click “Tag Now” the application automatically begins to record a short snippet of the audio currently playing. This takes around 5 seconds at best, I didn’t time it so don’t quote me on that:
After it is finished Shazam will ask you to connect to the internet, in this case I selected my provider, Kolumbus:
What is this young, single, mobile phone addict listening to? Rick Astley! The song name scrolls, artist name is right under that and the last line indicates the time when you clicked on “Tag Me.” One more thing, full album art! I’ll come back to what that 1/14 indicates:
When clicking on “Share it,” a text message entry dialog pops up allowing you to send an SMS to a friend who might like, laugh at, or hate this song:
RealTone doesn’t work for me, it just pulls up Shazam’s site, which is useless. Now what did that 1/14 indicate? MyMusic is a list of all the songs you identified. No clue as to the limit of items within that list. Yes I like Modern Talking, no I’m not gay:
Moving one tab over to “TagChart” you can see the most popular songs people are trying to identify:
That is all. A very simple application, it does 4 things: ID the song currently playing, list the songs you tagged, list the songs people are tagging the most and letting you share the name of that track with your friends.
Message to Nokia:
- Clone this
- Add the ability to “Download now via the Nokia Music Store”
- Add the ability for me to identify songs currently playing on the radio
- Let me see what songs my friends are tagging
- Let me see what songs my country and other countries are tagging
- Do it before Sony Ericsson does because they already have plans to implement everything I just said.
Update: A developer asked me if Shazam and TrackID poll the same database, they do, it is called Gracenote. I’ve also decided to throw in one more screenshot of some songs I had playing over my stereo:
Update: Richard Earney from Shazam left a comment on my blog informing me that they DO NOT use Gracenote’s database
direct link
http://s60.mobi/mgp/events/s60/vodafone/shazam.html
Link does not work on a 6120 classic – “Unfortunately Shazam ID is not available on your handset”
Oh well.
The Shazam service is good, seems to take longer to analyze the song than SE TrackID application. The service has been available in the UK for a while via a premium text messaging (just dial 2580 from the handset to activate the service) I can’t see the service remaining free when the trial runs out, unless Shazam are going to run an advertising model?
lol, rickroll’d
Hey, I tried the link you gave yesterday on my N95, and I get the same “not available for your handset” thing. It’s a shame really, this feature is something I have long been expecting.
Really nice app for my handset.
very nice
thanks for the direct-link!
Patrick, I also have the 6120 classic, i used the direct link provided by Momchil and I was able to install the N95 version. I didn’t have a chance to test it, but the application installs and opens fine.
Momchil Karabulev: Thanks dude, post updated.
This is amazing! I can’t believe it. Works great. It even recognizes the song without lyrics. Thumbs up!
Awesome!! At first I didin´t believe that this could be possible with a phone, but it works nicely.
Definitely Thumbs up!
Please not Shazam does not use the Gracenote database, we use our own. Please correct this!
I’m from Sri Lanka (An South Asian Country, I have a N73 and I installed Shazam today. However, after the recording and analyze software connects to a site via wap it displays the following massage “Didn’t understand response from Shazam servers” I have tried a dozen time but the outcome is the same.
Can any one explain why this is?
My normal web browser works fine. Can connect and download any thing without a problem. Further, I have a 3G connection.
Great utility. I´ve installed it in my N80 without problems, but after analyzing the music, it asks if I let it connect to internet, I press yes, and it connects, but it doesn´t ask me what connection to use for that. So mostly it doesn´t work if I don´t have wifi close. I want to use it via gprs but doesn´t ask to use it.
works great on my N82
This looks really nice. Does anyone know a similar software which works on Windows Mobile 6. I have a HTC Touch
Well, I have come from those SE phones that had Track ID and now have a 6120. It occurred to me that maybe i could try find sth similar on the internet and discovered this. Works seamlessly with my 6120classic and what can I say. It beats the SE track ID coz it shows full album art!
Works fine on my 6120 classic h3g.
A question (or two): you MUST install the app on phone memory, no chance to use memory card… Well, the “registered” audio is automatically deleted or it “eat” phone’s memory?
Same question for the album covers: if I delete them from “my music” I delete everything or something remains?
(sorry if my english is not the best…)
Thanks.
Does it work on Java phones? Or is it just Symbian?
LAME!!! They are asking to subscribe now! 3.99 per month is to much! I mean honestly how many tracks are you going to ID per month?? This is one of the reasons I got my Sony Eric phone , but I will not be paying 3.99 per month to use this service!
I can totally see a per use cost like 50 cents per song or something but 4 bucks a month?
It’s too bad. LOVE Shazam ID but will never use it again.
Doesn’t work anymore, says certificate expired now
Also getting the cert expired error on my nokia n95
I’m with Sonny, in regards to the HT Touch, Windows Mobile 6 compatible software that will do the same thing – anyone found one yet?
If u change the clock date will it still say certificate expired? i just downloaded it and it’s working fine on my n95 gb and i don’t wanna loose it frankly
!
Does anyone know if Shazam is working in other countries besides UK?
Why can’t I send the text to register on my nokia N95 8GB? It’s set up right.
will this work on NOKIA N95?
it works on N95
, just do the following:
:D
download shazam ID with the link, then send it to ur N95
now
change ur date to somewhere in 2007!! so like 14-09-2007, now it will install
after the install just do normal date and everything is alright
hello guys ! i have a nokia E90 and i changed the date to 14-10-2007 and i can’t install ! i have the same error certificate
The link http://s60.mobi/mgp/events/s60/vodafone/shazam.html
is not worlking anymore – can someone help??? I am totally dependent on having shazam on my phone (nokia e65). Yesterday I deleted everything on my phone by accident, and I just need shazam back!!!!!
Please help me??!!
Is there track id for the Samsung Behold? Had it on my Sony Ericsson and LOVED it!
I need to know if shazam could down load into my phone my touch