The folks at Shazam have just hit us up to let us know that the free version of their application now features unlimited tagging until January 2012. This was possible thanks to a three month sponsorship that eBay and Shazam have penned. Sweet! And as a bonus, they’re introducing a new feature that’ll feed to you a stream of songs your friends have tagged in order to facilitate easier discovery of music. Take a look at the full slate of changes below and head to the Android market if you’d like to jump on this one as soon as you can.

Shazam Launches "Unlimited Tagging" Globally in Free App for Android

First of its Kind Sponsorship with eBay and

Facebook® Integration with Shazam Friends makes Discovering and Sharing Music Effortless

 

London, UK - 28 April 2011 – Shazam®, the world’s leading mobile discovery company, today announced a major update to its Shazam App for Android which brings with it two exciting new features: unlimited tagging sponsored by eBay for all Shazamers using the Shazam Free App and "Shazam Friends", a real-time feed within the App of songs that Facebook friends have tagged, creating a continuously updating list for Shazamers to discover and share new music with their friends.

 

This is the first exclusive App sponsorship deal agreed by eBay anywhere in the world, and the first time Shazam has selected a partner to provide free services to their customers.

 

Alex Musil, Executive Vice President of Product Marketing at Shazam said, "eBay is a brand people know and love, and we’re excited to announce them as our exclusive sponsor, bringing all Android Shazamers the benefit of unlimited music discovery." Musil continued, "In addition, we’re pleased to offer Android Shazamers access to the Shazam Friends social feature, allowing them to share their music discoveries with their Facebook friends and family while discovering exciting new music and content themselves in a continuously updating feed."

This update of the Shazam Free App - which usually comes with five tags per month – will enable new and existing users to receive free unlimited Shazaming until January 1, 2012.

Steve Yankovich, Vice President of eBay Mobile said, "Like eBay, Shazam connects consumers with the content, products and information they want.  We are excited to sponsor Shazam’s Android App offering millions of consumers the chance to do even more of what they love, while expanding their ability to Shazam and share the music they’re most passionate about."

Shazam Friends is easy to set up and, upon updating the App, a new "Friends" tab will appear.  Once a Shazamer logs into their Facebook account and confirms they would like to connect and share with friends, they can:

 

·         Browse all of their friends’ tags, watch music videos, read reviews, access biographies and get artist tour information

·         See all recent tags from a particular friend in one list

·         Add friends’ tags to their Shazam tag list

·         Purchase the track

·         Where available, use streaming services to play the song from their playlist

·         Post tags to Facebook and Twitter, add comments, and give their friends a chance to comment

·         Encourage friends to join them in using Shazam Friends

 

Shazam Friends is already available in both Shazam Free and Encore Apps on Apple’s iOS devices and now on Android devices. Shazamers can manage the sharing of their tags and decide to stop sharing at any time, while still being able to see their friends’ tags. For two friends to see each other’s tags, they both have to connect their Facebook accounts to Shazam.