Shazam is an app for phones and tablets that allows you to recognize music. But how does this happen? And how to use such a program?
Shazam is a service designed to recognize music one short piece at a time. Most often, it is used as an application for the phone: you do not need to pay for installation and use, and after bringing the microphone to the sound source, the program determines the name of the song and the name of the artist. With the help of such an application, you can recognize the track you like anywhere: in a taxi, in a bar, on the street, etc. Those. extraneous noise is not a hindrance for Shazam, and the song's low popularity is also not.
The history of Shazam: the name and development of the app
The word Shazam really exists in the dictionaries of the English language, it means something like a spell, an analogue of the Russian "abracadabra" - a magic phrase, after which the result is achieved instantly and by itself.
This is exactly the goal set by the developers of the program: so that in the blink of an eye the user can get all the information he is interested in about the music and its performer.
As for history, shazam was created in the late nineties: then it was a service that works via SMS to a short number. If someone wanted to know the name of the song, then he had to write down a 30-second fragment and send it to number 2580. Within a few seconds, an SMS came with the answer.
But it took 14 years of work and research for the application to become the way it is now. The developers were assisted in this by Professor Smith, the creator of algorithms for synthesizers from Yamaha, and his graduate student Avery Wang. Under their leadership, not only a complex algorithm for sound recognition was developed, but also a huge database of spectrograms was created, which included more than 15 billion tracks.
And already in 2013, Shazam was included in the top ten apps in the world. It became shareware (before you had to pay for SMS), and is available not only on phones and tablets, but even on smart watches. In the latter case, the user can get information about the music by simply touching the wrist.
How does Shazam work?
The application is based on an algorithm that uses spectrograms - images that show how the strength of an audio signal depends on time. This algorithm is actively used in seismology, hydro and radar, speech processing, etc. And spectrograms are, in fact, the “fingerprints” of the sounds on which Shazam is based.
If you look step by step, then the music recognition in the application is as follows:
- the shazam database is pre-equipped with an impressive card index of a wide variety of music "prints";
- after the user “marks” the song they like, the application will generate a “fingerprint” for it based on a ten-second sound sample;
- the program sends the created fingerprint to the Shazam service, in the database of which the search for matches will begin;
- if a match is found, the application will give information about the composition and the artist, if not, it will show an error message.
Those. Shazam treats any song as a time-frequency graph with three axes showing time, frequency, and intensity. And each point on such a graph reflects the intensity of a certain frequency at a particular moment in time. The program also distinguishes between pure tone and bursts of white noise.
By creating a graph for a song, the application detects the frequency of the "peak intensity": it takes several peaks in 10 seconds of the sound of the sample, and then translates the resulting "fingerprint" into a hash table, where the keys are the frequency values. The first value - the first key - is used by the program when it searches the database for matches.
And if there are several matches, the program searches for a frequency match in time.
Shazam home screen
After installing the program, the user, opening it, will see a large button in the center of the main screen. It is designed to start music recognition, and 10 seconds after pressing it, the application will give the result. But only if there is a minimum of extraneous noise around.
If there are a lot of these noises, the search becomes more difficult: Shazam takes longer to recognize the song. To do this, there is a toggle button in the upper right corner of the main screen - it puts the program into automatic mode. And after pressing it, the application will recognize the music for the next 4 hours, even if the user leaves it.
Settings
To get to the settings menu, the user needs to pay attention to the left corner of the main screen - there is a gear icon. And after clicking it, the program settings will open, which contain:
- the ability to log into your Facebook account to share tags;
- the ability to disable or enable notifications;
- terms of use of the program and terms of confidentiality.
In addition, through the settings, the user can contact the support service to get technical assistance or answers to questions about the application. And, if he wants to, purchase the Encore version of the program.
Bottom of the screen
At the bottom of the screen there are five buttons - menu icons, with the following names:
- "Tags";
- "News";
- "Pulse";
- "Opening"
- "Start of recognition".
By clicking on the "Tags" button, the user will be taken to a section containing lists of all recognized music. These lists are divided into two categories: "my tags" and "auto". The first category contains those songs that the user recognized on his own, in the second - those that the program found in automatic mode.
By going through the tags, the user will be able to get acquainted with the biography of each of the performers, study his discography, released videos, album reviews, as well as the genre of the song found and the name of the recording studio. And, in addition, the section gives the user the opportunity to find out about future concerts of a particular artist and about other artists similar to him.
The user can share each of the tags on social networks using either email or a special messenger program.
The "News" menu allows you to find out about the release of updates, the appearance of new clips, news about popular artists or TV shows. In addition, the section with "News" allows you to view messages from friends.
The "Pulse" tab opens to the user the most popular, "top" music in real time. And "Discovery" allows you to track where and which song was recognized for a certain period of time. Tracking takes place on the map.
How do I get Shazam?
The application is designed for devices running on the Android platform, you can download it through the Play Market. However, there are different versions of shazam:
- free, but containing ads;
- paid - Encore version, which is considered complete, - no ads;
- version of Red, created in order to donate some of the funds received for using the application to charity.
Shazam is also available to Windows Phone users, although there are significantly fewer of them. In this case, the program is downloaded through the company store.
Shazam is not intended for personal computers and laptops. You can install it only after the computer has an Android emulator for PC.
