We recently posted a thesis that Shazam and SoundHound, the leading music identification apps, are modern versions of streamripping. Streamripping used to be a popular way to carve up Internet music streams into song files stored on the computer. Shazam and SoundHound both enable easy transfer of identified songs to Rdio and Spotify. Not exactly a rip, in the old sense, but similar in end result.
Shazam updated its iOS app with a feature that makes it even more of a liferipper than it was before. The new feature is an Auto function that keeps Shazam listening for recorded music at all times, even when the app is closed. It remains vigilant, identifying and tagging all recordings it hears in all environments, tagging it, and saving it for later perusal.
The auto feature is handy — a common Shazam frustration is fumbling for the phone and your apps to catch a piece of music that’s ending, and missing it. The watchdog (listendog?) feature solves that, and puts Shazam in a position to listen to your entire audio life as if it were a stream, ripping it to your phone.