Get off of my cloud – Shazam discovers Spotify

Shazam, the mobile music discovery service, is adding integration with music streaming service Spotify, a feature request that I’m sure has been rampant among hardcore users.

Users of Shazam’s free and premium apps for iPhone, iPod and Android will now be able to access Spotify directly through a new ‘Play in Spotify’ feature, which upon Shazam recognising or recommending a song, takes them directly to Spotify where they can listen to the full track. That’s if they have a Spotify Premium subscription (mobile access is only available for paying customers), and if the track in question exists in Spotify’s, shall we say sometimes Spotty, music catalogue. You’ll also need to be in either the UK, Sweden, Norway, Finland, France, Spain or the Netherlands.

That said, the tie-up between the two services is a very natural fit. Both target smartphone savvy music lovers, and the ability to hear a track out and about and have Shazam recognise it and tag it for you, only to then be able to access it on-demand via Spotify’s cloud, does really bring home the largest record collection in the sky proposition that services like Spotify try to offer.

London-headquartered Shazam also continues to go from strength to strength. At the end of last year, the company announced that it had hit the 100m user mark, adding 25m users in the previous six months – although, how many of those are still active, isn’t known. Shazam offers both a free version of its app – allowing users to discover or tag five tracks per-month – along with paid versions for unlimited tagging. It also has partnerships with AT&T, T-Mobile and Vodafone, along with television broadcasters including NBC Universal and Fox Broadcasting Company. In fact, the living room is the next growth target for Shazam.