Shazam Raises $32 Million To Expand Into Interactive TV Advertising

Shazam, the mobile music app that made it big by letting users find out new and interesting songs, has raised $32 million in VC funding. The current round of funding was led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Institutional Venture Partners. Prior to this round, Shazam raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 2009. Shazam allows users to discover and share music with friends and others across mobile devices and the Internet and works across multiple platforms including iPhone, Android, Symbian, Brew, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Java. In addition to this, Shazam’s music discovery service is already available in more than 200 countries and in over 30 different languages. With the new round of funding Shazam plans to expand into the TV market. Shazam for TV would more or less work like QR codes, whereby pointing mobile phones to TV sets would unlock certain things, such as ads, deals and other such things. The following companies have already integrated Shazam into their TV ads or programming: Honda and Starbucks have already integrated Shazam to unlock clues in scavenger hunt campaigns. In Honda's new Honda Civic campaign, players Shazam videos on the Honda YouTube channel playlist to find the next clue. Starbuck's SRCH scavenger hunt participants use Shazam to tag the Lady Gaga video for instructions on how to move on to the next phase. Paramount Pictures is using Shazam in TV to market premiere of Transformers 3 on June 29. Fans can Shazam TV and radio ads for a free download of an exclusive live version of the Linkin Park single, “When They Come For Me”, watch a featurette, buy show tickets or purchase the soundtrack Procter and Gamble is now using Shazam as part of their Future Friendly initiative. P&G ad viewers can Shazam their ads to see more on the environmental benefits of P&G Future Friendly products. Users can shazam the ads of Progressive Insurance to receive an auto insurance quote and download their “Flo-isms” app and custom wallpaper for their mobile devices. Shazam CEO Andrew Fisher, informed Reuters that he expects Shazam’s TV business to account for roughly half of Shazam’s revenues within the next two years. Fisher however did not disclose the valuation at which the company raised the current round of funding.

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Shazam Raises $32 Million To Expand Into Interactive TV Advertising

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