Soon, that song you Shazam could be produced by Shazam themselves. Warner Music Group recently announced that a partnership had been made with the company famous for its music identifying app. The Shazam music label will be used for collaborative projects as well as reaching into marketing endeavors.
This move should be surprising, since Shazam is more known for its cross-platform music-tagging rather than music creating. But considering how much it is used on devices, how often it is heralded for its innovative feature, it is a bold move however how this deal effects the app is something to come back to later.
Meanwhile, the Shazam music label will be the arm of Warner for unearthing and developing unsigned artists and extend its fan activity data (which I imagine is the main interest of Warner along with the name recognition).
On Warner’s side of the bargain, they have made a powerful marketing channel with greater access to fans who Shazam tag their music releases. With this they will receive detailed data of fan behavior regarding their artists from any of their many labels.
Using fan activity data to build up rising artists is an innovative move. It really takes on after Netflix’s move to create original content and offer the exclusive product on their own platforms. Is Spotify, Rdio and others going to follow with this? I suppose the feasibility and cost analysis they are no doubt already conducting will let us know soon enough.