Sort of like Yelp, Shazam is often seen as a redundant service to Microsoft’s built in Bing offerings. And like Yelp, Shazam does a lot more than too.
For instance, starting with version 3.5 you can tag (ID) songs even when you don’t have an active internet connection—that’s kind of a big deal if you’re like us and are always trying to figure out what that song is. You also get things like LyricPlay, the ability to buy music from the Xbox or Nokia Music stores, one-click tag with the Tile, watch YouTube videos, see local tags and more. Heck, it even has lockscreen support. That’s way more than the Bing Music ID service.
Version 3.6 just went live in the Store for both the free version and the paid Encore edition. Previously, there was no difference between the two apps, making Encore not exactly a bargain. However now, the free version sports ads while Encore remains ad-free. Does that make it worth the extra $5.99? We’re struggling to find a reason to justify that extra six dollars, unless you’re like us and bought it ages ago (we were probably drunk).
Version 3.6 also tacks on the usual “bug fixes and improved performance” label. While we haven’t seen too many bugs ourselves and the app has felt fast since its Windows Phone 8 upgrade, we’ll take whatever we can.
If you’re an active tagger, you may want to give Shazam a try. One benefit of the tagging system is that it is timed (10 second sample recordings) versus the more open ended Bing music ID, which will trail on for a long time on certain occasions. Because of that, we find Shazam more often faster than Bing, but your mileage may vary.
Pick up or update Shazam (free) here or if you’re mister moneybags, you can grab Shazam Encore ($5.99) here in the Store.
Via: Windows Phone Central Forums
