Shazam makes an app (available on iPhone, Nokia, Android and BlackBerry) that identifies songs by listening to 15-seconds-or-so snippets, and it’s SHA-MAZING! I tested it on the Google Droid in 4 different instances and it worked every time! How does it work? According to Slate:

The company has a library of more than 8 million songs, and it has devised a technique to break down each track into a simple numeric signature—a code that is unique to each track. “The main thing here is creating a ‘fingerprint’ of each performance,” says Andrew Fisher, Shazam’s CEO. When you hold your phone up to a song you’d like to ID, Shazam turns your clip into a signature using the same method. Then it’s just a matter of pattern-matching—Shazam searches its library for the code it created from your clip; when it finds that bit, it knows it’s found your song.

You may think to yourself that although this is awesome, you just wouldn’t use it. I thought the same, but it’s actually got some practical uses. Here are the songs Shazam identified, and what the source of the song was.

Inside Ross (Dress for Less) Store

James Morrison – Undiscovered

As my wife and I were walking around the store, we heard a song playing over the speakers on the ceiling. You know the type: round, white, small holes in it. It wasn’t playing loudly, and there was tons of typical bargain-store background noise. And Shazam got it!

From the TV in Our Apartment

Phoenix – 1901
(as Featured in Cadillac SRX Commercial)

Although I very easily could have found out which song this was by Googling it, I never bothered to. You know how it goes, right? You see the commercial and you wonder aloud what freakin’ song that is, but you don’t take steps to find out. Shazam! Even over the narrator’s voice, it identified this song.

From the TV in Our Apartment

Nina Simone – Sinnerman
(as Featured in HTC Commercial)

This commercial’s song is so repetitive, and it gets stuck in my head every time it comes on. And yet again I had not made the effort to find out who the artist was. Once again, over the commercial’s narrator, Shazam did its thing! Another unknown song identified in 20 seconds.

From the TV in Our Apartment

Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind

It’s hard NOT to know this song and its artists, as it’s played everywhere. But as a test, we challenged Shazam to identify the song as performed on the American Music Awards. Now, to be fair, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys BOTH sound very close to album quality in this LIVE performance (take that Janet Jackson and Shakira!) so it’s not that surprising. I’m still impressed.