Good news for music fans who love Shazam but hate having to jump ship to hear complete tracks. The popular music discovery app has released an update to its iOS version that allows users who Shazam a tune to go “beyond the preview” with full song playback. The new feature is powered by streaming service Rdio and will be seamless, and free, for users of both products.
With the update, Shazam users who already subscribe to Rdio can just click on the Rdio preview button to hear the song. If you don’t have the app yet, Shazam will prompt you to install it.
“It’s tedious to leave and come back,” says Daniel Danker, Shazam’s chief product officer, of being sent to a third party for playback. “What we’re launching today is supercharged with Rdio — the play button gets an Rdio logo in it, literally every play button in Shazam once it’s connected.”
Shazamed tracks are automatically collected in an Rdio playlist, giving users an easy way to keep track of their discoveries. “We’ve taken it to the next level by integrating,” Danker tells Billboard. “We’re turning streaming into a first-class partner.”
Danker explains that while Shazam continues to expand and innovate, it’s not about to break out into separate apps to get the music exploration job done.
“You have to think about how we think about the product we’re delivering,” he says. “Our role is to be the magic that connects people with their world. We started in that role by delivering a seamless experience around music recognition, and have expanded to TV, and will activate every movie theater in the country. So we’re broadening out by not just telling you what the song is but things to do once its identified, so breaking out into separate apps would sort of disrupt that magic.”
The update to the app will also include enhanced sharing capability via Facebook. It is available now on iOS, with an update for Android users launching in a few days.
