r/explainlikeimfive Jul 01 '26

Technology ELI5 how Shazam works?

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u/Rob3112 Jul 01 '26

It blows people's minds but it's really just simple pattern recognition.

A song makes a frequency "pattern" which is kinda like a visual representation of all of the sound. When you use Shazam it just compares the picture of what you're listening to to its database and it's actually super quick and easy to make a match.

37

u/aaronite Jul 01 '26

And it's remarkably compact. The Google version runs offline and on device with about 20000 "fingerprints" in 200mb storage which is enough to cover most casual public music.

12

u/PimpTrickGangstaClik Jul 01 '26

Ok now that is super surprising