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Shazam extends multichannel reach to remain central to music listeners

Music recognition service Shazam is broadening its capabilities with a few new efforts, including a partnership with Digimarc, a digital watermarking technology provider, and the addition of new content and in-app listening experiences.

Through these efforts, Shazam is attempting to provide more than its original service of recognizing a song that is playing. By volunteering more depth to its app and outside of it through external sources with Digimarc, Shazam will keep its users coming back to the app more often.

?Shazam?s recent partnerships will allow users to connect to the world around them like never before,? said Patricia Parra, chief marketing officer at Shazam, New York. ?Soon Shazam will expand beyond TV, advertisements, radio, cinema and retail to include new Shazamable environments through print ads, QR codes and more, each providing a second screen experience that goes beyond song identification to include special offers, exclusive content, promotions and more.? 

Doubling down
The Shazam app will now feature personalized music news and trending songs from users? friends and artists that have previously been Shazamed. Users can also check out exclusive Shazam Sessions, interviews and expanded charts.

The new Music Player feature lets users surf the Shazam charts from music that is trending to what is popular in users? specific geographical location. Shazam identifies, rates and saves the tracks that users want to hear again. Users than subscribe to premium streaming services, including Rdio and Spotify, can listen to their curated playlists and top charts.

Subscribers can now connect to Spotify to listen to full tracks in the Shazam app and can automatically add their Shazams to a Spotify playlist.

?Shazam was born out of a passion for music, but continues to evolve to give users a seamless connection to the world around them through a growing list of Shazam-enabled environments including retail, cinema, TV, advertisements and more,? Ms. Parra said. ?At Shazam, we are continuously seeking innovative ways to enhance users? everyday lives through deep content experiences no matter where they are.?

As for its partnership with Digimarc, the tech provider will add its print and audio identification to the Shazam app, which has more than 500 million downloads and more than 100 million mobile monthly active users. The partnership will aim to optimize identification, engagement and monetization of all media.

Digimarc IDs are embedded into television, radio, live events, print, advertising and packaging to trigger branded, measurable experiences on mobile devices and aim to provide brands and retailers with reliable means to inform and engage with shoppers.

The two parties believe the inclusion of Digimarc IDs in the Shazam platform will greatly enhance the utility of Digimarc-encoded media by providing a global base of established users of scale.

Broadening its reach
Many brands are using Shazam to boost their marketing efforts.

For example, Office Depot has a new beacon-like strategy enabling shoppers to access offers and other content on their smartphones by connecting with the in-store sound system.

When shoppers open the Shazam mobile app in-store to identify a song or audio message, the apps connects with Office Depot?s overhead music system using an inaudible watermark and enabling the delivery of a message. The idea is similar to how beacons work, except that offers and content are delivered on a storewide basis whereas with beacons, content can be different based on a shopper?s location in the store (see story).

Similarly, the Country Music Association Festival, which aired on ABC in August, partnered with Shazam to offer second-screen ads that encouraged users to take a more in-depth look at the featured stars.

Offering behind-the-scene footage, additional performances, giveaways and more, the Shazam experience gave viewers a way to step further into the experience. Since those tuning in are there simply to enjoy the entertainment, and music fans are known to go lengths for a closer look at their favorite singers, this lent a convenient opportunity for an app such as Shazam to engage viewers (see story). 

In October, Shazam updated its app to keep users coming back for music news and trends, strengthening its presence in the world of music on mobile.

The music identification service was building on innovations to its mobile platform to connect users with their friends also using the app. By integrating its app with iOS 8, Shazam could then stay current and continue to appeal to its users (see story).

?Shazam has more than 100 million monthly mobile active users who use Shazam on-the-go more than 20 million times per day,? Ms. Parra said. ?With such a robust and engaged user base, Shazam is constantly evolving to offer our brand partners a customizable platform to reach users in unique and diverse ways wherever they are, driving meaningful interactions for our partners and creating deep content experience for our users.?

Final Take
Caitlyn Bohannon is an editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York