“Music is all around us, all you have to do is listen. »

I remember this line from the movie August Rush. Since then, I've become more aware of the sounds playing around me (natural and otherwise). August turned out to be a talented musician. I can't pull off the higher notes of Lost Stars (one day I will, Levine, one day). As the nerd that I am, being aware of the music for me is only half the battle. I need to identify it, remember it, and catalog it so I can come back to it.

That's why I love Shazam (remember to turn off notifications in iOS, they've become very clickable recently). No matter what genre of music I point it to, Shazam identifies it all. It could be purely instrumental music in an Italian cafe or a Bollywood song at the top of a busy Delhi street. Oddly, none of that is a problem for Shazam. Shazam introduced me to Angus and Julia Stone after all.

Stream to: Can't access Spotify or Rdio in your area? Use a VPN to enter. You can also just use Spotify in Chrome and control music using global shortcuts, without having to install the desktop app.

It's also amazing how many of these songs Rdio carries. Rdio was recently launched in India, and for around $2 a month I get unlimited streaming and ad-free offline downloads for 32 million songs.

Shazam+Radio

All of these "marked" songs would usually sit idly by in Shazam. But now you can log into an Rdio or Spotify account and have access to a playlist of all your Shazam'd songs.

It's great because now I will have instant access to all my digitized songs on all my devices.

You'll need a Premium account: Shazam can connect to Rdio and Spotify. While Spotify lets you create playlists for free, in Rdio it's a premium feature. Since I don't live in the US, I couldn't connect to Spotify. As far as I know, Spotify login also requires a premium account. Oh, and you can only use one service at a time, not both.

How to connect Rdio or Spotify with Shazam

In this example, I will connect Shazam to my Rdio account.

Open the Shazam app and go to My Shazam .

You will see the Equipment icon in the top toolbar. Tap on it and you will see an option called Connect to Rdio .

Tap on this option and you will see a promotional banner image. Tap Play Full Tracks, sign in with your Rdio account (not a free account, you'll need it with Rdio Unlimited) and Shazam will tell you that the playlist is created.

Even after downloading the Spotify app from the US app store and logging in with my free account, it wouldn't show up as an option in Shazam. Maybe because I only had the free plan or because Spotify is not officially supported in my country. But if Spotify is officially supported in your country, you should see the option.

Now all you have to do is open the Rdio app, go to Playlists and tap on My Shazam Tracks . Here, all the songs you have scanned with Shazam and which are available on Rdio will be displayed.

Although I couldn't test this on Spotify, I think the process and result will be similar. Log in with your upgraded account, wait for authentication, then enjoy the playlist.

Share some of your Shazams

What's the best song you've ever Shazamed? Share with us in the comments below.