As one of the most popular apps of all time on the App Store finally launches an 'encore edition' of it's music tagging service, this week we compare the free and paid versions of Shazam.
Shazam & Shazam Encore
Shazam has become such a useful and successful service for the iPhone that the app alone has become a selling point of the entire device. Featured this year in one of Apple's commercials and consistently featured at the top of the App Store charts, it's hard to disagree that Shazam has become an iPhone phenomenon. That, of course, is a great reason for Shazam's developers to build a premium version of the app. More importantly for us iPhone users, however, is the question of whether Shazam Encore is really worth the $6 that's charged.*I've separated this review into a few sections, all of which I feel are vital elements of any good app - and especially relevant to the Shazam franchise.
Accuracy
What good is a music tagging service if it's no good at, well, tagging music? None at all. Thankfully, Shazam has always identified recorded music pretty well - and quickly, too. I've been using Shazam since the first day I got my iPhone (after wishing the iPod touch had a microphone for almost a year) and I can truthfully say that nine times out of ten, it works perfectly (there's always going to be the obscure piece of music that, rather infuriatingly, will never come up as identified). Shazam Encore doesn't change anything about the tagging process - which is just slightly disappointing. Rival app Midomi has been able to (at least attempt to) tag music that you sing yourself. It depends rather largely on how good a singer you are, but at least an implementation of this similarly useful feature would be nice.
Interface
The Shazam interface is said to have improved with the arrival of Shazam Encore (it's unusual for an app to have different interfaces for pro/free versions of the same app). Unfortunately, it's not the radical change in interface I would have liked to have seen. While the interface is clean and simple enough, it lacks a certain aesthetic touch that really could be achieved with such a large and popular application. Having said that, there are obvious changes that have been made for the Encore edition of the app. There's an emphasis on artwork for tagged music (although in my tests, I've found a large amount of misplaced/inaccurate artwork) and there aren't any (as expected) annoying Google ads taking up screen real estate. The added features (such as tag locations, charts and biographies) are presented neatly on their own screen inside the tagging menu.
Speed
Speed is important for an app like Shazam (even more so than others). When you're hearing a song being played over, say, a café's speakers or a nearby television, you might only get a few seconds to try and capture the song - so a small time taken to actually load the app is optimal. Shazam Encore takes you straight into the tagging screen, while the free edition requires you to tap on the 'tag now' button for the app to start 'listening' to the sound. After that, Shazam matches your music and (hopefully) gives you a result. Here's the most shocking and disheartening part of it all - Shazam Encore, a premium version of the same app, takes far longer to return your match. On a stable ADSL2 internet connection, I tried to tag a few very well known songs. Using the (up to date) free version of Shazam, I got a result in less than ten seconds. With Encore, I gave up after waiting for more than a whole minute. This isn't a one-off, either - the app just struggles to return a result in less than a minute, and consistently. I pray for an update to fix this up.
Experience
There's no doubt that the experience of using a music tagging app has improved in Shazam Encore. Taking aside the speed issue (which, surely, is just a bug), there are some great new features in the premium application. The Shazam charts now show the top tagged songs across the world. Biographies, iTunes-Genius-style recommendations and location information are included when you tag a song - all enhancing what Shazam calls your 'music journey'. You also have the option to search across Shazam's database to discover new music (though I fail to much use in this, since most of the database can be searched in the iTunes Store anyway). Shazam Encore feels like a much fuller application, and the new features are certainly welcome additions.
Overall
The Shazam service is bursting with potential. The ability to identify live music, a cleaner, crisper interface and a larger music database are all on my wish list for the future, and with Shazam Encore on the App Store, it's likely that most of the exciting additions to the service will be added only to this premium edition (to entice more users to upgrade). For now, however, I simply can't recommend it to a casual Shazam user. While the free version now limits new users to five tags per month, the best part of Shazam is still there in the free version of the app - fast, reliable identification of music. You may wish to compensate the developers for their hard work on the free application, and enjoy using the new features contributing greatly to the Shazam experience, but I honestly can't say it's worth the $6 asking price (at least in it's current state).
Shazam
Version reviewed: 1.8.0
Price: Free
Developer: Shazam Entertainment Ltd
App Store
Shazam Encore
Version reviewed: 2.0.0
Price: $5.99
Developer: Shazam Entertainment Ltd
App Store
iPhone App Reviews - The Shazam Showdown