Deezer has launched its own mobile audio identification tool. Deezer SongCatcher can identify the artist and track title for audio playing near your smartphone. Tracks that are found with SongCatcher can be added directly to a Deezer playlist. All saved and favorited tracks can be played within SongCatcher. The feature is currently in beta and will be open to Premium+ subscribers. The rollout will begin on Android and is slated to arrive on iOS next year.
“The joy of hearing new music or a long-forgotten favorite is also about knowing which artist or what song is playing,” said Alexander Holland, Deezer’s chief content and product officer. “Deezer SongCatcher enables us to eliminate the tongue-biting frustration of trying to search frantically for a song online before it ends, which then eclipses the fun of actually being present in that moment to enjoy the music.”
The move to create a proprietary audio ID system is a timely one for Deezer. Earlier this month, Apple announced an acquisition of Shazam, one of the earliest and most recognizable companies to offer that service. Google Assistant can also identify a song playing nearby. The addition of audio ID tools offered directly by a streaming service is the latest move to keep listeners spending more time in the app, giving them fewer reasons to need to navigate away.