Shazam: Find Music & Concerts

Review by eFreeware

Shazam is a music identification app from Apple Inc., and it does one job in a few seconds: you hear something you like, the app tells you what it is. That core trick is the reason to consider it, because everything else in the app is built on top of the songs it captures for you.

The pitch is simple enough that most people understand it before they install anything. A track is playing somewhere, you tap, and you get the title, the artist and a place to keep it. What makes the current version more interesting than a one-trick identifier is what happens afterward: concerts near you, lyrics, videos, charts and a library that remembers what you found.

It is free, carries no ads and has no in-app purchases, which is unusual for an app with this reach. More than 500 million installs and a 4.8 average across roughly 12.2 million ratings suggest a lot of people keep it on their phones rather than deleting it after the novelty wears off.

Naming a song you only half hear

The basic flow is the one most people know: tap the button, hold the phone toward the sound, and wait for a match. What the developer adds to that is flexibility about where the sound is coming from. A song playing in a store, a car passing with the windows down, a track in a show someone else is watching all fall into the same category of use.

Recognition also works inside other apps, which covers the case where the music is coming out of the phone itself rather than the room. The developer lists TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat among the places this applies, and says songs can be identified while you are on headphones or offline. That last part matters if you travel a lot or listen in places with poor signal.

There are several ways to start a listen beyond opening the app. A widget on the home screen, a Quicktile and the notification bar all act as triggers, so the app does not have to be in front of you. Auto Shazam goes further: it keeps searching for more than one song and continues after you leave the app, which suits anyone who wants a passive record of what played during an evening rather than a deliberate tap each time.

From a single song to a library worth keeping

Every identification lands in a library you can revisit, which turns the app into a personal log of what you have heard and liked. Over time that log becomes the raw material for recommendations: the app suggests songs and playlists in the same vein as what you have already discovered. It is a sensible use of the history, and it means the app gets more useful the longer it stays installed.

Charts add a wider view, showing what is trending both locally and globally. If you want to know what a city is listening to this week, or what is climbing nationally, that is a quick check rather than a research project.

The library is also the part worth protecting. Creating an account backs up your Shazams and keeps them in sync across devices, so the history follows you rather than living on one handset.

Concerts, lyrics and video in the same place

Concert discovery is the second half of the app's purpose. It surfaces live shows near you, either from artists you have already identified or through curated recommendations. For someone who Shazams a lot and then wonders whether that band is playing anywhere close by, having the answer in the same app removes a step.

Lyrics run in real time in a karaoke style, following the track as it plays. Music videos come from Apple Music or YouTube. Neither is the reason to install the app, but both are the kind of thing you use once you are already there.

There is also a dark theme for people who prefer it, and the developer mentions extra content from artists as part of the package. Availability of features can vary by country, so what you see may depend on where you are.

Sending songs where you actually listen

Identifying a song is only half the job; the other half is getting it into the service you use. Shazam opens any track directly in a preferred streaming app, with Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music and Deezer among the options. That covers most of the major services, so the handoff is likely to land somewhere useful.

If you would rather not do it manually each time, songs can be added automatically to Apple Music or Spotify. That requires connecting your account, which is a reasonable trade for not having to move tracks one at a time.

Sharing is handled through Snapchat, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and X, so a discovery can go straight to whoever you were with when you heard it. Between the streaming handoff and the sharing options, the app is designed to sit in the middle of how you already listen rather than replace it.

Permissions, accounts and what the app asks for

Setup is mostly about permissions, and the developer describes each one as optional. Tapping lets the microphone identify a song playing nearby. The app uses your location for nearby events, song origins and service improvements. Notifications deliver messages personalized around your activity, and screen share access is used to identify a song when you are connected to headphones, by temporarily reaching the device's audio output.

The app can be used without granting any of these, though some features may not be available if you decline. That is a fair arrangement: you can try the core identification first and decide later whether the extras are worth the access.

An account is the other piece, and it is tied to backing up and syncing your Shazams between devices rather than to using the app. The app has a Teen content rating and was last updated on October 7, 2026.

Where it fits into someone's phone

This suits people who hear music they cannot place and want an answer without typing lyrics into a search box. It also suits anyone who listens in situations where the source is not obvious: a café, a gym, a friend's car, a video playing on the same phone.

The concert side gives it a second audience, namely people who identify artists regularly and would act on a local show if they knew about it. The library and recommendations then make the app more valuable to anyone who treats music discovery as an ongoing habit rather than a one-off query.

It is free and free of ads and purchases, so trying it costs nothing but the install. The trade-offs are the ones the app sets for itself: an account for backup and sync, optional permissions for the fuller experience, and features that can differ depending on your country.

A keeper for anyone who hears music and wants to know

Shazam is worth installing if you regularly hear music you cannot name and would like that gap closed in seconds. The identification is the hook, but the library, recommendations, concert listings, lyrics and streaming handoff are what keep it useful after the first week.

The fact that it is free, with no ads and no in-app purchases, removes the usual reasons to hesitate. The 4.8 average across more than 12 million ratings is the kind of signal that comes from an app people keep rather than try once.

Install it if you want a fast answer to what is playing, and stay for the record of everything you have found since. It is the sort of app that quietly becomes part of how you listen.

What's new

Thanks for Shazaming! We’re always working hard to make the app faster and better than ever. Update to the most recent version to enjoy the latest and greatest Shazam. Don’t forget to keep your Shazams safe and in sync between your devices. Simply create an account and we’ll back up your Shazams so you’ll never lose them. Love the app? Rate us! Your feedback is music to our ears, and it helps us make Shazam even better. Got a question? Visit support.apple.com/guide/shazam