Shazam Adds Visual Recognition

Shazam answered the age-old question of "What's the name of that song?", but soon the app will be able to do much more.

The company has now added a visual recognition element to the app, which means that you'll be able to point your phone at a poster, print media, or some merch to unlock some additional online content.

Yes, QR codes already do much the same thing, but they're clunky, sometimes difficult to read, and pretty ugly. This new element allows a company to register the artwork with Shazam, and the artwork then acts as a built-in QR code itself when triggered by the phone's camera.

Walt Disney Company, Harper Collins, and Target have already signed on to the service, but the company is in talks with the major record labels and the promoters of several large festivals.

QR codes held so much promise but were ultimately underused. Perhaps Shazam has finally found the key to visual recognition.

The new logo is built around a camera icon, as seen on the left.

---

Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this blog at no cost to you (just click here).

The Reality Of QR Codes

Here's a great infographic from Lab 42 that shows the reality of QR codes. As you'll read, only 42% of people are actually familiar with QR code, but 62% of those have used it as a ticket. Check it out.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Flyer Creation Made Easy

Let's face it, a lot of us are graphically challenged. Sometimes we can't even imagine what a graphic should look like, let alone create it. That's why a new service called Flyer Lizard can be so useful, as it allows you to quickly and easily create digital flyers and gig posters, then distribute them through social media or print them.

Flyer Lizard allows you to upload your own flyer if you only want to use their distribution services, but otherwise they have a nice image editor that makes it pretty easy to create your own professional-looking flyer right away. Then you can share it on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, among others. You can even add QR codes.

Flyer Lizard is free, but you do have to pay a small fee for most background images if you choose to use them. Check out the video below that explains it all.

-----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

4 Ways To Use Your CD As A Marketing Tool

Yes, people still buy CDs. There were over 240 million CD sales in 2011 that were recorded (and many millions more that weren't), so it's still a viable market that's going to be around at least for a little while longer.

Since people still buy CDs, you might as well use it as a marketing tool as well, instead of solely a piece of merchandise. Here are a few things to think about before you commit to manufacturing.

1. Pay attention to your artwork. It really is important. Low quality artwork can give a potential buyer the impression that you didn't care enough to get it right, and maybe the music and production on the CD suffer from the same fate.

2. Ad a QR code. A QR code is that little black and white square image that's basically an analog link to an online address. People scan it with their camera phone and can instantly go to your website, iTunes store, or just about anywhere else you point them. It doesn't cost much and is a great way to keep people interested while they discover more about the artist or band.

3. Be sure that your website URL is very visible. Put it on every page of the artwork so if the reader gets curious for more info they can instantly get it. This is your chance to sell some merch, which is where the real money is made.

4. Include a download code. This could be for the digital version of the CD, additional bonus material, or some unreleased songs. Whatever it is, this is becoming more and more common and CD buyers are beginning to expect it.

Remember, as I've said here before many times and illustrated in my Music 3.0 Internet music guidebook, your music is your marketing.

-----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Audio As A QR Code

One of the more interesting aspects of the Superbowl was the fact that Shazam, the 4rth most popular iOS app of all time, led something of a breakthrough in the world social promotion. The company ingeniously tagged the audio during the superbowl so you could automatically link to sponsors websites if you listened using the Shazam app. For want of a better term, it was an audio QR code.

If you don't know about Shazam, it's a great app that will listen to a song, then tell you its name. That makes adding an audio tag to the music played during the Superbowl so that you can link to a sponsor just an extension of what the app does anyway.

The list of sponsors included Toyota, Best Buy, Cars.com, Pepsi, Teleflora, GE, and movies Act of Valor and John Carter. Plus during halftime, a partnership between Bud Light and Interscope allowed listeners/viewers to unlock exclusive content from Interscope artists.

This venture into audio tagging is a significant development for a number of reasons. First of all, this opens up a host of opportunities for artists in the future. Imagine people automatically directed to your website as they're listening to your song without having to do a Google search first. On the television side, this opened up what's known as the "Second Screen" experience, where what you're accessing on your computer is just an extension of the television show that you're watching.

I always thought that accessing a QR code was anything but a sleek experience, since it always seems to take a number of snapshots from your camera to get one that registers. Audio tagging is so much easier, and let's face it, convenience always wins with the public.

Who would've thought that the biggest sporting event (really one of the biggest events period) could be such a step into the future of promotion?

-----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.