Category: Music
Price: Free
TiP Rating: 5/5 stars
Release Date: January 7, 2012
Version: 1.0
Seller: Shazam Entertainment Ltd.
Rated: 12+
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later.
Link to app

App Store Description: Switch to a music player with a difference – Shazam Playerâ„¢ the NEW app from Shazam! Why just listen to your music when you can now see streaming lyrics, watch YouTube videos and read reviews of your favorite tracks and artists! Get to know your music with Shazam Player.

Summary: Shazam Player aims to replace Apple’s native music player by letting you stream lyrics, watch YouTube videos, and read reviews of tracks and artists.

Review: It’s been more than three years since Shazam first released its self-titled music tagging app. After the successful integration of LyricPlay, the company has released a new app called Shazam Player that acts as a replacement for the native music iOS app.

Shazam Player starts by scanning your device’s music library to see which songs are also in Shazam’s LyricPlay database. Depending on how much music you have on your device, this process could take a while. (Fortunately I have a relatively small library on my iPhone so it took less than 15 seconds for roughly 75 songs – only 9 of which were available in the database. I blame this on my poor taste in music and not Shazam.)

The app then compiles a list of tracks that can be added to the Player. These are only the tracks that have LyricPlay; all other music can be accessed through the Library tab at the bottom of the screen.

On the LyricPlay tab, clicking on any song will move all tracks over to the Player. If you’d prefer to add songs individually tap the track and hold it until a small menu comes up. From there you can add it to playlists or place it in the Player. The Player can be cleared at any time by scrolling to the top of the Player screen and tapping “Clear Player” – don’t worry, all of your music can still be accessed through the LyricPlay or Library tabs.

While here, you will also notice a small blue triangle in front of each track. Tapping it will pull down the track tray, which features options to share it on Facebook or Twitter, read bios and reviews, watch YouTube videos, find tour dates and more.

The Library tab is essentially the same as in the native music app – tracks can be organized by artist or album, and can also be added to the Player. The only difference is that tracks that don’t fall under the LyricPlay tab won’t be able to display the lyrics.

The lyrics can be viewed in two ways: 1. Through LyricPlay where they are similar to a karaoke screen (but less annoying), or 2. Through a lyric sheet within the track tray. The lyrics sheet is just a static page with all of the lyrics written out.

The Playlist tab is pretty interesting. There are two standard playlists: The Good List and The Bad List. The Good List is where you can store all of your favorite songs. The Bad List is for your guilty pleasures or songs that you don’t want to hear as often, but can’t delete. Shazam will also be sure that the songs in this list don’t get played when shuffling. You can also create custom playlists in addition to these.

At any time you can click on the Shazam icon in the top left corner and the original Shazam app will open. I don’t know when I’d need to use this since most likely I won’t be listening to two music sources at once, but I appreciate it being available and easily accessible (one tap is better than three!).

Overall Shazam Player is a lot of fun to use. Its interface is colorful, visually appealing, and, for the most part, easy to navigate. I love the option of being able to access LyricPlay or my full music library without having to leave the app. I think the biggest challenge will be getting users to get out of the routine of opening Apple’s native music app first.