
How does the music-identifying app Shazam work its magic? - chuck_taylor
http://img.slate.com/id/2232914
======
haseman
Too bad they don't own the rights to their own fingerprinting software...

At this point, it seems Shazam isn't much more than a brand. Which, I'm sad to
admit, they've done a very good job building.

(fair disclosure: I work for a company that sells a competitive product)

~~~
liuliu
It seems that the paper do come from its chief scientist. Who own the
rights/patent? Columbia University?

~~~
eagleal
The majority of patents applications (and issued ones) I found are assigned to
Shazam Entertainment Ltd, there is not a mention about Columbia.

Issued Patents (Wang, Avery Li-Chun):

1\. [http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sec...](http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-
bool.html&r=0&f=S&l=50&TERM1=Avery+Li-
Chun&FIELD1=INNM&co1=AND&TERM2=&FIELD2=&d=PTXT)

Here a search from the inventor at the AppFT (Patent Applications):

A. [http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sec...](http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-
adv.html&r=0&f=S&l=50&d=PG01&Query=IN%2F%22Avery+Li-Chun%22)

4 most relevant applications:

1\. Method and System For Content Sampling and Identification

1.1 [http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sec...](http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-
adv.html&r=2&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=%28%22Avery+Li-
Chun%22.IN.%29&OS=IN/%22Avery+Li-Chun%22&RS=IN/%22Avery+Li-Chun%22)

1.1.1 TIFF image (rename file *.tif):
[http://aiw1.uspto.gov/.DImg?Docid=us20080154401ki&PageNu...](http://aiw1.uspto.gov/.DImg?Docid=us20080154401ki&PageNum=1&IDKey=AECA900A8928&ImgFormat=tif)

2\. Method and apparatus for automatically creating database for use in
automated media recognition system

2.1 [http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sec...](http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-
bool.html&r=2&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=shazam.AS.&OS=AN/shazam&RS=AN/shazam)

3\. Method for High-Throughput Identification of Distributed Broadcast Content

3.1 [http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sec...](http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-
bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=shazam.AS.&OS=AN/shazam&RS=AN/shazam)

4\. Robust and invariant audio pattern matching

4.1 [http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sec...](http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-
adv.html&r=6&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=%28%22Avery+Li-
Chun%22.IN.%29&OS=IN/%22Avery+Li-Chun%22&RS=IN/%22Avery+Li-Chun%22)

~~~
joezydeco
So let's go down the rabbit hole farther....

Wang/Li-Chun (US6990453) is assigned to Landmark Digital Services, Inc. Let's
see who they are:

"Landmark Digital Services LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Broadcast
Music, Inc. (BMI), a company long known for visionary technical innovation
driven by a genuine passion for music. In 2005, BMI acquired the complete
patent portfolio from Britain’s Shazam Entertainment Ltd."

I've always heard mentions that the Shazam technology was originally targeted
to root out pirated music on P2P nets. Sounds about right to me now.

~~~
allenbrunson
i worked at landmark digital up until about a year ago, so i can say with some
confidence that you've got it backwards.

the music recognition algorithm was developed by mr wang, specifically for
shazam, to do just what it has been doing all along.

the reason landmark got into the picture is because they are a subsidiary of
bmi, the music rights organization. they monitor radio stations. since the
dawn of time, they have been paying actual human beings to record logs of
every song played on most of the big radio stations in the united states,
24/7. they use that information to ensure that the song's rightsholders get
paid for the plays. obviously this is a situation ripe for automation. they
hired a guy to do a multi-year search for the best technology for the job, and
settled on shazam's algorithm.

i am not privy to the details, but i believe shazam sold the code to landmark
because they were strapped for cash. there are complicated legal agreements in
place of course, so that shazam can still use the code for cellphone music
recognition.

------
axod
It's actually technically not _that_ hard to get something like this working.
Monetizing is trickier. I don't see how they will make enough money from it.

Didn't know they were still going after 7 years.

~~~
bmelton
I haven't tried anything like it, so I can't comment on the difficulty of
creating the fingerprinting technology, and frankly, I'm not all that
impressed with Shazam. But as I understand it, Pandora uses the same Music
Genome data to make its suggestions, and that is REALLY magic.

~~~
jkincaid
I've heard a couple times that Pandora doesn't really rely on the Music Genome
any more because it has so much other listener data it can use to determine
relevant matches. Haven't actually asked Pandora about it, so take that with a
grain of salt.

~~~
physcab
Yah I believe that. We don't have access to the Music Genome and we can still
build a decent rec engine. When you have millions of users you can assemble
pretty good features if you log the usage properly.

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jaytee_clone
melodis.com (the maker of midomi) is a lot more impressive than Shazam.

Here's a brief description about its proprietary search technology.

[http://sev.prnewswire.com/multimedia-online-
internet/2007012...](http://sev.prnewswire.com/multimedia-online-
internet/20070126/NYF01426012007-1.html)

Here's an article that compare the features of both iPhone apps.

[http://www.theiphoneblog.com/2008/11/05/app-app-shazam-
midom...](http://www.theiphoneblog.com/2008/11/05/app-app-shazam-midomi/)

~~~
rufo
Shazam works much better than Midomi in my incredibly informal, anecdotal
experiences... never got any of the extra midomi features to work when I could
use them, either.

~~~
eb
When was the last time you used Midomi?

I think it's pretty well established that Midomi is faster and has better
music recognition than Shazam. There's a few video comparisons out there that
show this:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-EK50DWDn0>

<http://revision3.com/appjudgment/ip_mau_shazamvsmidomi>

~~~
rufo
Yeah, I used it way back when it first got posted on the App Store.

I reinstalled it based on your post and used it in Starbucks earlier, where it
definitely worked better than Shazam.

Still can't recognize my humming, but that might be my fault more than
Midomi's...

