Bing Audio support for Windows Phone has started rolling out to 14 new countries:
- Argentina
- Austria
- Belgium
- Brazil
- Denmark
- Finland
- Ireland
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Portugal
- Sweden
- Switzerland
Bing Audio is already available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S, of course.
From the official blog post:
If you’ve never used it before, here's how Bing Audio works: When you hear something playing you want to identify, just tap the Search button on your phone, then tap the little music note icon shown below.
The phone listens for a few moments, and then lets you know if it finds an audio match. Here’s another tip: If you ever want to go back and see a song Bing Audio identified in the past, just go to Music History, which you’ll find by tapping the Search button, then tapping open the More menu.
Of course, some people swear by popular music recognition apps like Shazam and SoundHound, which you’ll find in the Windows Phone Store (it’s always nice to have choices). But in my mind Bing Audio has a couple things going for it. First, it’s built in, so you can start using it right of the box—no downloading necessary. Second, it’s tied into Xbox Music. So once you identify a track, it’s easy to quickly buy the song or preview others from the same artist. Just tap the Store icon shown in the screenshot above. Xbox Music Pass subscribers (I’m one) can also stream or download the tune to their phones.
There's also a link through an interesting Q&A with Bing Audio's developers.
Good stuff - we often forget that what we've been using for years might not be available in all countries, so good to see Microsoft continuing its plans to get its ecosystem and services right across the globe, matching the distribution of Windows Phones themselves from partners like Nokia.