Shazam Continues Reversing Freemium Model, Brings LyricPlay To Free App

Jordan Crook

Jordan Crook studied English Literature at New York University before entering the tech space. Prior to joining TechCrunch, Crook dabbled in mobile marketing and mobile apps as well as doing device reviews for MobileMarketer and MobileBurn. Crook is fascinated with alternative energy production and greentech. She is now a writer for CrunchGear. Hello → Learn More

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011
shazam

The folks over at Shazam have been busy little bees recently. After announcing Shazam for TV, offering up the ability to purchase products seen on television programming courtesy of Delivery Agent, and finally ditching the tagging limits for iOS devices, a brand new feature is making its way into the app. It’s called LyricPlay, and it lets users read the lyrics of the song they’ve Shazamed as its playing with interactive visual themes.

Shazam has been reversing its freemium business model a bit lately (which is made obvious by the return of unlimited tagging). This latest feature was once an exclusive feature of the paid version of Shazam, Shazam Encore. The goal, according to Shazam, is to keep users in the app longer. Shazam, at least when I use it, is really more of an occasional app that I whip out the moment I har an excellent song, but I don’t tinker around in the app after its tagged. In fact, the only reason I spend more time in the app is to pop over into iTunes and buy the song.

Users interested in getting their LyricPlay on should check in the App Store or Android Market for updates to the app. After downloading the update the new feature should show up within the app immediately.

Adding an interactive way to listen to (and inevitably read) entire songs while tagging could really boost the length of most app sessions. Plus, who among us can honestly say they don’t need just a little help understanding lyrics?

Except Ellen, of course:


Website: shazam.com
Launch Date: 2002
Funding: $32M

Shazam connects more than 300 million people in over 200 countries to the music, TV shows and brands they love. Every week another two million curious people embrace Shazam. All this makes us the world’s leading media engagement company. It’s an amazing app – in fact it’s one of the Top Ten most downloaded iPhone apps of all time, available now on all major app stores and platforms. We’re the best way to discover, explore, buy, and share music...

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