By Paul Fiore, Copywriter

Confessions of an addict.

Hello, my name is Paul and I am a Shazam-aholic.

I have been Shazam-ing now for around 4 years. It used to be a casual thing, something I’d do to pass time. But slowly, it grew into a daily addiction. Now, whenever a song catches my ear, I will stop everything I am doing, reach for my iPhone and Shazam it.

Sometimes I don’t even realise I am doing it. I awake from a dream, clutching the iPhone, waiting for the name of a song to magically appear. I cannot stand not knowing the song’s name, right then and there.

You probably know how Shazam works, but I will explain it for all the people who hate music. Shazam is like a camera for ears. The app listens to the song playing, creates an acoustic fingerprint and finds a match in a central database. Then like magic, Shazam sends the artist, song title, and album info.

Many of life’s mysteries are solved by Shazam,

Q: What’s that song playing on my co-worker’s iMac?
A: “Unless You Speak From Your Heart” by Porcelain Raft

Q: What is that music playing over the closing credits in “Girls”?
A: “Wishes and Stars” by Harper Simon

Q: What song is the old guy singing along to in the lift?
A: “Eye in the Sky” by the Alan Parsons Project

Now I always know what song is playing, and most importantly, whether I am meant to hate it or not. Best of all, I don’t have to talk to anyone to find out this information.

Before Shazam, I had to memorise (remember memorising?) a snatch of a song’s lyrics, then type these into Google, hoping in vain that I could find the song’s name. Oh, and before that, I used to have to remember the actual tune and sing it to the agitated record store guy (remember record stores?).

Sometimes I Shazam other things, just to see what happens.

• Once I Shazammed the Mr Whippy Van to see if it could identify “Greensleeves”. No luck.
• I Shazammed “Land Down Under” to see if it could detect “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree”. Not even close.
• I once even Shazamed my own voice when I thought I was not looking.

I am not proud of any of this.

 

Recently I went back through my Shazam archives and compiled a list of 10 songs that I have Shazammed over the years. You can listen to them below.

Have you got a secret Shazam shame? Share it in the comments section if you’re feeling brave.