Popular music discovery application Shazam passed the 50 million user milestone today, an increase of 15 million users since February. The app, available in more than 150 countries, lets users tag and identify songs by holding their handset to the source, and then gives the option of purchasing or sharing the identified song. Shazam also announced an undisclosed strategic investment from the iFund, a $100 million fund started by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers.
According to the company, launching on the iPhone 3G last summer has been largely responsible for its explosive growth. The Shazam app has been downloaded more than 10 million times on the iPhone and is now amongst one of the highest downloaded apps on BlackBerry App World, where the typically free app costs $5 to download. Shazam is also available on Nokia’s Ovi Store and Google’s Android Market.
Shazam’s success brings up a point made by AT&T Chief Technology Officer Jon Donovan at CTIA (although overshadowed by his other, more surprising points). He said that AT&T has found more consumers to be interested in accessing music rather than acquiring it. The Pandora and XM Radio iPhone applications are two of the biggest data drivers on AT&T’s network. The Shazam app is designed around both accessing music and then acquiring it. The company didn’t identify if its 50 million users are solely identifying songs or also purchasing them, but I imagine it leans more to the identify-only side.
Given mobile music’s rocky history, what do you think? Will music acquisition or music access apps be more successful on mobile?
