Death by Shazam and the Discovery of Nuru Kane

I discovered Shazam in Croatia.  Let me set the scene, we had just arrived in Split from Bosnia, where the music had been a line up of the worst pop offenders of the UK at the time.  This was around spring 2014, so Sam Smith's Money On My Mind was everywhere.  I had a colleague who liked to sing that song incessantly about an octave and a half higher than Sam's version, so my little backpacking trip was to be a holiday from that if nothing else.

Wrong.  That song was everywhere in Bosnia!

Arriving at our apartment in Split there was a little ghetto blaster on the bedside table (note:  I use the term ghettoblaster as a catch all term for any portable music player bigger than a walkman, this thing would not have carried much streetcred.)  It was pre-tuned into a world music station and this is where I discovered the captivating sound of Nuru Kane.

It was more like this...

...than this

I whipped out my trusty notebook to try and unpick the artists name from the Croatian language DJ's lightening quick wrap up at the end of the song.

My travelling companion trumped me on both fronts, she said "It's Nuru Kane, and you need 'Shazam'"

"Nah" I said "I'll be fine once I've had a shower" thinking she was referring to the slight lack lustre that can set in after a couple of long bus and train journeys.

Since then I've been obsessed, on my endless quest for new music, Shazam has become part of my armoury.

The app lives on your phone and when you hear a song that tickles your fancy, you open it up and touch the logo in the middle of the screen, Shazam will listen to the song and save it to your 'tags'.

From here you can download the track directly from iTunes with just a few clicks.  But if, like me, you are not a fan of bastard IT corporations like Apple, you can also just use your 'tags' as a list to refer to when you are downloading music from your preferred source.

It's also useful for songs you know and love but which have somehow failed to find their way into your music collection.  Not to mention that just saying the word 'Shazam' often prompts me into singing the chorus of We Go Together from Grease.

At first it seemed pretty comprehensive but I have managed to stump it a few times, whereby it returns a 'no match found' message.  This is really gutting as by the time Shazam informs you that it's been beat, it's usually too late to get the notebook out.

I listen to a lot of music in the car and temptation has overcome me - I'll confess I have Shazamed whilst driving.  It's not big, it's not clever and I will stop doing it.  But the fact that I'm the most likely of anyone I know to die due to Shazamming while driving goes to show what an important little part of my life this app has become.

And from a Luddite like me that really is quite a compliment.