• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, February 25, 2014

With the latest version of its app, Shazam aims to make clear that it’s much more than a tool for tagging songs and TV shows. The company on Tuesday unveiled the full redesign of its app at the Mobile World Congress with added content.
 
To that end, added features include lyrics, artist bios, music videos, Shazam-specific recommendations and discographies.
 
“What we are working to do is extend what we offer to consumers beyond being primarily used to return the name of a song, and then purchase that song, to offer a much more engaging content experience,” Shazam CEO Rich Riley told World Congress Daily.
 
The key changes of the visually focused redesign are found on the tag results page, where users now see a music header with full album cover art, track title, song lyrics, videos, options to buy and share selections, and get concert tickets. In short, artists now have a broader canvas to build out their presence in the app.
 
Shazam and Warner Music Group last week announced a new Shazam record label for unsigned acts, as well as an enhanced marketing effort for Warner artists.
 
The latest app upgrades also follow the recent launch of Shazam’s auto-identification feature to automatically ID music and shows (without having to press the Shazam button), and a News Feed feature that shows content that others have tagged.
 
The latter has been used to help promote big events and stream exclusive material. During the Super Bowl, for instance, users who tagged the game’s broadcast were able to get a live content feed tracking the action via tweets and photos, as well as showing ads. Shazam generated 700,000 tags during the game and 1.1 million during the Grammys telecast.
 
In the U.S., the app overall allows users to “Shazam” 160 TV channels, returning information on music and cast and crew related to a given show.
 
With 420 million registered users worldwide, including 80 million active monthly users, Shazam wants to build out its ad offerings along with its content. Its Super Bowl campaign with Jaguar, for instance, allowed the luxury car brand to retarget users who had tagged its “British Villains” ad during the game.
 
Given the wealth of data it has on users' tastes in music, movies and TV shows, the company could offer broader ad targeting outside Shazam, which seeks to ramp up monetization toward an expected IPO.

The company's upgraded app is now available for the iPhone, and in the coming weeks, on Android devices.