Shazam Data Helps Predict A #1 Hit Over A Month In Advance

We all know how popular Shazam is. The music recognition app is cure to all the hours you’ve spent furrowing your eyebrows at a song you can’t get out of your head, hum all the time, but just can’t put a name on.

Shazam is used by 100 million monthly active users from around the world, and it was recently (unsurprisingly) valued at over a billion dollars. But the exact power of the bank of information and data the company has collected about music listening trends has only just surfaced. In a recent talk, Shazam VP Cait O’Riordan explained some of that data and how they can use the knowledge to predict a Billboard #1 over a month in advance.

She explains how using Shazam and judging a song based solely by the ears “largely unmediated by marketing” is a true statement of peoples likes. O’Riordan elucidates, showing us what Shazam can asses based on how many people use the app to identify a song, when they use it (for example, the graph spikes over the weekends for electronic artists becoming more popular at clubs, even if they have lower media presence), and at what point in the song they choose to hit the button. The analytics, it goes without saying are very informative.

The power of Shazam really is quite incredible. You can watch the fascinating video below.