Fresh off launching a faster version of its app earlier this week, Shazam announced today that it has partnered with American Idol to make the TV shows “Shazamable.” Viewers can now tag the shows with their Shazam apps to see what songs the contestants are performing, click links to buy the songs, get Twitter feeds from insiders, follow the official social media channels, and see video and photos from AmericanIdol.com.
“As we surpass more than 200 million users worldwide, this initiative marks another major achievement for Shazam – American Idol is the first live series following the successful Shazam for TV integration of this year’s Super Bowl and GRAMMY Awards,” said Andrew Fisher, Shazam CEO. “We’re really excited to make another flagship show Shazam-enabled, after the world’s biggest sporting event, the biggest night in music, and now television’s most-watched show.”
Shazam debuted a new “lightning-fast” app version on Tuesday to make it easier for viewers to tag moments on TV. “Literally in as little as one second we can match the content you’re hearing,” explained Shazam’s David Jones. We gave the new app a try and it’s about twice as fast as the old version: some content took 5 seconds to “listen” and identify, others as quickly as a second. Shazam says it adds about 1.5 million new users each week.