Wanted: A Shazam for film

Tragic: the moving pictures industry still misses an equivalent of the most powerful fan tool, the mobile online world yet has on offer

Shazam is the App I value the most. And my deliberately most used one (*1). It is also the App closest to my heart. As it contains some of my most precious, most emotionally loaded and most personal content, I access thru my smart phone: my personal Shazam list. Translating into the one an only list of music, that I like without any exceptions.

What a powerful thing this list is to avid music lovers like myself. My list was build over years. It is strongly connected to all kinds of memories of places, situations and emotions. It holds stories of great discoveries, of glorious triumphs, valuable defeats, wonderful moments or awesome travels.

And, with grief always being a great indicator of how much things really mean to us: even five years after the incident, I still suffer when thinking of the moment I lost what I remember as my “first Shazam list” due to an unfortunate series of events involving a change in devices, an update hick-up and improper back-ups. To this day, I carry the strong feeling, back then I lost touch with some really great pieces of music.

Like that one track playing at Urban Outfitters in Tucson/AZ back in the day … Yep, I still remember this evening well. Great time downtown Tucson’s University district. Warm wind in our hair, nice people around, good music … and: “AAAARgh!” This one song, I can not remember anymore. Because.

With stories like this, Shazam unveils its real power. As, for sure, what I really do bemoan here is the missing link that could connect me again. Directly right into the emotion of that night. It would be that one song, that one melody bringing me back to that certain night immediately. That one song, I was not able to memorise properly myself (*2). Instead, core melt accident. My extended memory in the cloud, accessed thru the magic Shazam App, lost all memory of it as well. Damn.

A tiny incident for the world, but a relevant one for my relationship with music. And it represents a good insight into how valuable Shazam has become to me — and probably for a good part of the Billions (*3) of all the other App users out there as well. It’s that emotion, and that emotion only, that also makes the relatively small, privately held company of the same name as its key product, Shazam, one of the most important players in todays global music business. The company is so powerful, as the number of how often a track gets “Shazamed” has become one of the key-metrics we can measure the public interest in a piece of music with today. And, with direct links to streaming sites or MP3 selling shops, Shazam has become a top address for impulse shopping of music in the handheld devices age. Shazam even creates its very own charts now. Eat that Billboard (*4).

Plus, Shazam totally fulfils the “Hunter/Gatherer”-Impulse so many fans and music lovers always had and still have. Myself included. We want to collect. We want to store. We want to keep the acoustic artworks we admired accessible. And preferably, we want to do it the moment we stumble upon them. This is where things connect big time with the film world. As this urge is something, film lovers like me feel as well. We too want to collect them all. We want to keep lists. And we want to connect these lists to our emotions coming by connecting with the creative work by others we admire. Like: where we saw the film first. With whom. At what time. etc. But let me get back to that in a second.

First, one more thing: Perhaps the most valuable information Shazam offers is its ability to connect me with — and store the information about — music the exact moment it actually happens to me. Which is mostly on the go. It’s what I call the “Discovery x emotion x extended memory”-effect that makes Shazam so unique. And what makes my personal “My Shazam” list so precious to me. With all other music online services, I need to find some extra time to browse their virtual shelves one or the other way to figure out what I really, really like. And even if I allocate time to do so, on some days I might find nothing that amazes me. All my efforts in vain. (*5) It’s the nature of stores that you need to know what you are looking for. While Shazam does let you store what you have discovered and recognised as beloved. That’s why I personally Shazam many songs I like since decades already, but that sometimes went off my radar, as I navigate the turbulence of life. Once Shazamed, I got them on “the list”. And, once I export my Shazam (e.g. into Spotify or AppleMusic) I can create some of the emotionally most valuable digital property under my name: A collection of songs I really love. No failures from A to Z.. Forget about my other libraries. The thousand of Vinyls and CDs I collected since the 1990ies. Or even Spotify’s famous “Discover Weekly” list. Which is good, but still, just a helpless attempt to mirror my diverse taste (*6) compared to what I can gather going thru the world myself. Only my Shazam list is my very own personal collection. Unbeatable personal. Unbeatable diverse. Unbeatable me.

So. I wrote you all this to show what the world of film is missing. Wouldn’t it be great to have a “Shazam for film”? A place where you could tag and track the films you like. Just based on how and where the films cross your path. Sure, we rarely commit to sit thru a film for two hours plus unless we know something about that film beforehand. So, Shazam’s “Discover it from”-mode would be a less important element for films. But I’m sure, the ability of an App to identify a film simply by scanning the sound (and/or picture?!) and then connect that tag to a personal film database would be awesome to have for film lovers. And it would open the film world to all the fangirl / fanboy benefits Shazam now offers for music. A dream come true for everyone who truly loves film.

I wonder why no one has taken on this brilliant business opportunity yet. There was a bit of an attempt with an App called TheTake (https://thetake.com/). But in a case of total misunderstanding, the team behind it made it a shopping App to shop for things you see in the films rather then to focus on the films. The team seemed to have missed a few points about the “why” people are watching films or series. As humans watch to drop out, rather then to log into. For example the shopping mode. Plus: Each film holds millions of objects. Not even Amazon might be able to solve the challenge of having every particular item a person could potentially be interested to buy inspired by a two hour film. Beside, such concept is totally no appealing in the context of many of blockbusters. It’s great to watch Alien — Resurrection. But who on earth wants to buy anything from that planet? ;-)

What film fans want instead is being able to keep track of the films they love. Or hate. And they want it connected to a place where they can store that information and share it with others. Just like a “Shazam for films” could be. It’s needed. Now.

*1 · I write deliberately, as the first three spots in my “Most Used Apps” list go to Apps I pretty much feel forced to use by the universe for obvious social and professional reasons. It’s Facebook, Twitter and aehm… the weather :-).

*2 · Sure, a therapist could make good money here in talking me thru answers to the question “Why don’t you remember that songs yourself, Mr. Seifert?” :-) But I guess, I rather prefer contemplating on the answer for myself.

*3 · Wikipedia claims the Smart-Phone App has been installed on over a Billion devices.

*4 · Just for the records: The challenge with these charts is, we need to believe 100% what the company Shazam is telling us here. And Shazam only. While all forms of traditional charts (e.g. Billboard in the US, Media Control in Germany etc.) are based on data collected by a mix of sources, compiled by companies specialised in data analysis, creating a more diverse, more independent set of numbers. Shazam’s charts are delivered by the company itself (I guess based on the data users provide), without any further cross-check. I do not want to imply, the company is not showing the real numbers, but I think its relevant to be clear on this as a consumer or entertainment industry member.

*5 · Btw., a challenge that already turned off many people from going to browse physical record stores. They where interested in music in general but the amount of available music compared to the very little guidelines to access it (small signs with categories or artist names plus grumpy, mostly arrogant clerks behind counters) took the fun out of it for many to go and explore new music in record stores. Also check Nick Hornby’s brilliant novel “High Fidelity” to pay tribute to these times when others peoples minds sometimes where the only gateway to a certain piece of music. There also is a fun film to watch based on that book.

*6 · Hm, the Spotify-Discover-List … I’m lost in a bubble there. As it for whatever reason has me down for tons of new-age relaxing sounds and singer/songwriter stuff. Even excessive Motörhead-consumption could not shake off the yoke so far. Anyways — I still consider Spotify being the best attempt to translate the experience of music as a valuable commodity into a business model so far. When it comes to Spotify, Thom Yorke got it all wrong.