How The Heck Does Shazam Work? “By throwing away almost everything and keeping only a handful of landmark peaks, a noisy 5-second clip from a coffee shop becomes a set of coordinates precise enough to pinpoint one song out of millions.” Fascinating!
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Comments 2
I love Shazam so much.
But at the same time, I'm just waiting to find out they use their money to bury landmines in front of preschools or something, since that seems to be the prevailing trend for apps I enjoy. 😑
Many years ago, I worked at a tech start-up that designed the "listening" hardware that, at least at the time, powered this. It was built for BMI, the performing rights organization, to scan FM radio to determine what songs were being played and how often to calculate royalty payments to the songwriters. With the advent of the iPhone, the tech found a fun end-user application in Shazam. They described it as the audio equivalent of the FBI's fingerprint-matching database, only using sound waves instead of fingerprints (which is why it only works on the original recordings in their database, and not the cover band playing in your favorite bar). We got to tour the server room where the equipment was installed—a really fun memory!
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