“The makers of Shazam, the hugely popular song-identifier for the iPhone, launched a $5 premium version Monday and said future versions of its free app will be limited to five song identifications a month,” Niraj Sheth reports for The Wall Street Journal.
Shazam, which names songs by listening to a clip that’s playing on the radio or stereo, is one of the most popular cellphone applications to date — and one of the rare few to turn a profit. It’s been downloaded more than 10 million times and has sold out its inventory of advertising space, according to maker Shazam Entertainment,” Sheth reports.
“Shazam had hoped that mobile advertising and iTunes downloads would sustain the free app, but with the recession, that has not happened,” Sheth reports.
“Existing Shazam users, however, can keep using their free, unlimited versions,” Sheth reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We were going to say, “Looks like we’ll be using Midomi more often,” but we’re happy to see that existing Shazam users, however, can keep using their free, unlimited versions. We were going to recommend Midomi as a possible alternative, but then we checked and that formerly-free app is now going for $4.99, too.
I will not pay $5 bucks for Shazam. Really, was it that cool?
So the current version that I have now will always continue with unlimted use, or will it turn on the meter if I ever upgrade the app in the future?
Midomi has always been my favorite and will continue to be. They switched to paid version for almost a year now…MacDaily do your research! Not to mention Shazam gets their music info from another company right? You pay Shazam for this app and they don’t even do it themselves! At least midomi and MusicID is legit.
I have it, used it, oh, maybe twice- didn’t see much use for it. Most of the music I do listen too it will not recognize.