Preamble and expository explanations

Music recognition software is available as an App on newer mobile phones and the main company, Shazam, began in 2002 and is currently available in 150 countries and has 50 million users. Their database of 8 million songs consists of spectrograms, a visual representation of the music, that are used like fingerprints for identification; complex algorithms do the rest.

This winter, Shazam ended their “freemium” model and launched a “paid version” of the App that offers a one-time payment of $5 for unlimited searches; you can still download the free version, although it only allows 5 searches a month. In 2010 Shazam expects to double its users and regularly ranks in the Top 10 on numerous iTunes Store Charts.

A few months ago my friend purchased a fancy new phone, downloaded Shazam, and wanted to try it out. I thought it would be fun to try and stump it. So, I grabbed Aphrodite’s Child; sure, it was released on well-known Vertigo Records, but the album is still relatively unknown to most. Shazam found it. I said, “Wow. If it can get Aphrodite’s Child 666, this thing can find anything.”

Months later

I begin to write an article about challenging my record collection against Shazam, choosing specific items to test its database because I think it’ll make an interesting article with the initial idea of organizing it like a puerile lab report. Each record I choose for a reason, believing that each directly represents a larger category. Oh, Shazam will always find songs playing on the speakers at bars, at restaurants, on the radio, and comes in extremely handy when you can’t think of the name of the song playing or during a disagreement over whether Alice In Chains is the one that’s playing right now. In fact, Shazam worked very well near the speaker in a crowded room of loud drunk people with a dustbuster on in the background, where it picked up “If” on the new Flaming Lips album. But what about something really obscure, like Miami Bass over freaky porno sounds called Bachelor Dance Party? Or dogs howling Beatles songs? Sweep the Leg Johnny side-project Check Engine? Foreign private pressing stuff? California private pressing stuff? Private press from Florida? Nope. Shazam is clueless. For live bootlegs the device also stumbles, but performs very spotty when testing it against Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones, a live album released on a major label, when it picked up “Lady Jane” during portions where the song more resembled the studio version and Shazam detected it from the album Aftermath.

Shazam has a major problem on spoken word albums, finding no Rudy Ray Moore, Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, Wild Man Fischer, or Alan Watts. Nothing off of a few ‘60s garage comps. Although I did not try it, I doubt Shazam can find classical music not on film soundtracks, due to the fact that on their website it states that their musical database “extends back to the ‘50s.” It did detect Zappa’s 200 Motels and Weasels Ripped My Flesh at its most insane zenith of strings and noise; so such capabilities to find rhythm-less and feedback madness are present. And yes, it oddly enough found the new Lightning Bolt.

I have an oldies comp from a defunct Philadelphia radio station, and despite finding the songs, Shazam detected those mid-‘60s soul classics on movie soundtracks or recently released greatest hits packages of the original artist. Also, it only found a few of the early ska tunes from "Intensified: Original Ska 1962-1966'', but displayed the source from other greatest hits collections of the artist. It can’t find anything off ‘50s doo-wop comps, Mt. Eerie, Karate, Disco Rick, Shagrat, or those weird flea market polka records. After testing against more than 30 albums and dozens of songs, it found a pathetically small amount. When it comes to lesser known music, Shazam is a hit/miss device, performing poorly the majority of the time.

What exactly is going on?

It comes to my attention that the product is not built or designed for a challenge against my record collection and the entire premise is sort of ruined by the fact that I know what’s being played. I’m purposely shooting for the long tail. From Shazam’s perspective it’s all preparation. It’s a matter of building the database properly alongside its populace. It knows every Taylor Swift, U2, and Pearl Jam song, but it misses out on some great things.

When you are truly moved by a piece of music and wonder what was just playing, those same feelings and desires were inside the people who created the software. As Shazam grows and as their marketing information reveals missing demographics, decades and decades of math and statistics locked together will tell you exactly what you’re listening to, searchable almost as fast as a thought, the archival of the world’s music organized beyond imagination…

In the living room, my roommate sits next to the speaker holding his new fancy phone. I want to see if Shazam can find Harumi, a weird psych album put out on Verve Records in 1970. The program works quickly, taking 10 seconds or so listening to the song and then using another 10 to display on the screen what’s playing. Nope, Shazam can’t find Harumi.

“Just a few more,” I tell my roommate, his gaze announcing boredom. “I want to see if it can find The Fall, but I have this The Fall album with extra stuff and I want to see if that’s in their database.” Sure, Shazam can pick up “Jawbone and Air-rifle,” but it can’t find any of the extra material on side 3 and 4. “Don’t you understand what that means? It can’t find ‘I’m into C-B,’ and it can’t find any b-sides or extra material to The Smiths either. The a-sides are detected as coming from The Singles Collection. That’s right but not the original source. And the thing is clueless on b-sides.” Just to showcase the sensitivity of the mechanism, Shazam can find the a-side “This Charming Man,” but it can’t find the second track on the a-side, an almost identical version of “This Charming Man,” although produced slightly differently enough for confusion. “The database is not legit. It’s not thorough. It excludes songs through obvious and fixable errors. I am disappointed that novelty and consumerism dominates its purpose.”

My roommate doesn’t understand why I’m so animated. “What do you expect it to do? It’s merely a toy, a trivia machine. It’s supposed to help you buy more stuff. The real cutting edge application of the technology… What’s the dilemma? Why the cynical rhetoric? It’s ridiculous to dismiss it and unfair to trivialize it just because it doesn’t know Karate.”