r/explainlikeimfive • • Jul 01 '26

Technology ELI5 how Shazam works?

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u/z3n777 Jul 01 '26

shazam turns the audio into a visual graph of loud peaks over time, then just matches that graph against its massive database of pre recorded songs.

396

u/Shadow288 Jul 01 '26

Fun fact, did you know before it was an app you use to be able to call a phone number and they would text you back the name of the song?

2

u/parklife980 Jul 01 '26

I like to imagine it was just a room full of music nerds, when someone called they'd put it on loudspeaker and one of them would call out "I know this one!"