Shazam, for those who are unfamiliar, is a smartphone app that allows users to identify songs that are currently being played on radio, in the club, in the store, etc. As long as you have the app and your smartphone, just tap Shazam and it “listens” to the song, combs through its database, and spits out the results with artist name and track (assuming it’s in their database), ending the age old problem of “I wonder who sang that song?”
Well the company has decided that providing music services was not enough, and now they’re hoping to go forth and conquer bigger things, such as television. As it stands Shazam has just started to be used in several television shows and advertisements, such as The Glee Project and Old Navy where viewers hold up their phones to the television at specific moments in the show when the Shazam logo appears in order to unlock additional content online.
In Old Navy’s instance, by Shazam-ing the music video users will be able to access Old Navy’s website and view the clothes that was worn by the faux band in the video which brings about whole new possibilities, bringing Shazam’s functions up from just identifying songs to now identifying clothes and accessories. Imagine being able to go out and Shazam-ing someone on the street and finding out what brand clothes they’re wearing and where they bought it, or maybe even directly linking to their Facebook account, kind of creepy but a possibility?