Shazam reaches v4.0, new UI, lyrics, faster and more accurate recognition

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Shazam, and services like it, are one of the wonders of the modern world - just a few seconds of almost any music on the planet and it'll pick out the track accurately - seemingly - however obscure the task. And, catching up with Christmas updates, it seems there's a fresh UI and lyrics, where available. Of course, Cortana itself contains a music recognition engine, but in my tests it didn't get the same 100% accuracy as Shazam.

Here's the changelog in going to Shazam v4.0:

Shazam is back on Windows Phone with a brand new app, bringing you super fast music discovery! This is only the beginning and you can expect many more updates through 2015…

With Shazam 4.0 you’ll get:

  • A new recognition engine with faster and more accurate Shazaming 
  • Quicker app startup so you can get Shazaming sooner 
  • Brand new interface, designed specifically for Windows Phone 8.1 
  • New song pages with lyrics, videos and links to Xbox Music

It's a very worthwhile update and worked flawlessly for me (despite a rash of presumably region-specific complaints in the main Microsoft Store):

Screenshot, ShazamScreenshot, Shazam

Listening away is front and centre - I tried to fox it with some obscure tracks - Mel C's little known second album  - no problem. Also, note the continuous pane can be swiped upwards to read through all the lyrics to the track...

Screenshot, ShazamScreenshot, Shazam

Tapping through brings up the album in Xbox Music, so not as obscure as I thought; (right) OK, really, really obscure - Yep, Shazam gets it in a few seconds. Wow. Not found on Xbox Music though, despite the banner here in the app. It just goes to the Xbox Music home page.

Screenshot, ShazamScreenshot, Shazam

Ditto for this very obscure Christian track. Identified quickly, but not available for tapping through. Though in each case similar videos online were flagged up and included; (right) in 'My Shazam', a history of all the things you identify is kept, so that you can easily go back later and try to source the music again.

Highly recommended for anyone wanting a little more in terms of music recognition - here's the Store entry. Note there's also the paid Shazam Encore, much the same but without ads. For casual users, and where Cortana is available, just use that instead.

Source / Credit: Windows Phone Store