Shazam officially hits Windows Phone 8 with homescreen tagging and Xbox and Nokia Music integration

Exactly one week after Shazam launched an all-new iPad app, the music discovery and tagging service has officially unveiled its new Windows Phone 8-optimized version.

Though a Windows Phone 8 version was quietly rolled out back in April, today marks the official introduction of the app which also brings in a handful of new features.

As with the other versions of the app, Shazam for WP8 is free to download and offers an unlimited amount of tagging. However, while the iOS and Android incarnations link through to the likes of Spotify, Rdio, YouTube and iTunes, the new WP8 version guides users towards Xbox Music or, if you’re using a Nokia handset, Nokia Music. YouTube integration is also included, but no word yet on Spotify or any other third-party streaming apps being included.

The new Shazam app pretty much includes all the usual music-tagging features, but it also introduces some interesting location-based tagging, not too dissimilar to what was rolled out for the new iOS app last week.

But while iOS users can now access interactive maps which lets them see the most tagged tracks anywhere in the world, the WP8 version restricts this to their locale.

The current tagging activity is updated every 30 minutes, and this feature can also be set as a tile on the home screen.

Interestingly, users can also pin the Shazam tagging button to their homescreen which means they can tag a song without actively going to the app itself – this is potentially huge from a second-screen perspective, given that Shazam is pushing hard to infiltrate the TV market. And it’s similar to the new iPad feature that auto-tags music in the background while the app is minimized.

Shazam and TV

While Shazam is perhaps best known for its music discovery technology, its expansion into television has opened doors to new opportunities for the company, letting viewers engage with TV shows and ads for additional content and exclusive offers.

Following a hook-up with American Idol last year, Shazam lined up a landmark deal with British broadcaster ITV, promising to let viewers snap up products they like during ad breaks, using nothing but their smartphone and Shazam’s mobile app. The first of these ads featured during the Britain’s Got Talent grand finale last May.

“We are incredibly excited about this launch as it brings so many of Shazam’s key features to Windows Phone 8 fans,” said Daniel Danker, Chief Product Officer for Shazam who recently joined from the BBC.  “Windows Phone 8 users now have access to a great smartphone experience, from faster tagging and a new interactive map, where users can discover the music people are listening to around them. This is more than just the music that’s already popular; these are often songs people are discovering for the first time.”

This now means that Shazam is pretty much as cross-platform as you can get for an app – it’s available for iOS, Android, Windows 8, BlackBerry, Nokia (Ovi), Windows Phone 7 and now, of course, Windows Phone 8.

Shazam for Windows Phone 8 is available now.

➤ Shazam