[Return to Tomiahonen.com] [Ahonen Bio] [Pearls of the Month] [Ahonen books] [Ahonen conferences] [Ahonen workshops]

Pearl of the Year 2002 - Shazam: Identify songs with mobile phone- to return to Pearls [Click Here]

The Pearl of the Year for the best new service idea for 2002 is Shazam. Here is the original slide describing

Shazam when it was still only in trial in the UK. Since then the service has gone into full commercial use

(From the press release)

TomiAhonen Consulting awards Pearl of the Year best service of 2002 to Shazam music recognition service

Exciting new service beats out mobile queueing, mobile parking, killer bees game and mAd money

London, 31 January 2003: TomiAhonen Consulting today revealed its Pearl of the Year selection awarding this honour to Shazam of the UK and its music recognition service, which was also the Pearl of the Month for July 2002. Shazam's mobile service lets users identify recorded music by pointing the mobile phone at the music, dialing 2580, and receiving the name of the artist and song in a return SMS text message. The service works on all networks in the UK. Shazam has expanded its offering to music greetings, purchasing music etc at its website, www.shazam.com.

In winning the Pearl of the Year, Shazam finished ahead of other Pearls of the Month including picture messaging; mobile parking in Estonia; raising cash from cash machine with mobile in Denmark; virtual queueing at amusement park in UK; receiving real money from watching mobile ads; and the game Killer Bees from Austria.

Tomi T Ahonen, 3G expert and bestselling author said in announcing the award: "There are literally thousands of existing services that are being ported to be used on mobile phones. These can be interesting and profitable but they are mostly predictable. With Shazam, however, I am excited in that this is something totally new, that was not possible before on media such as digital TV, CD Rom, the fixed internet, etc. The only way to deliver this music recognition service is via the mobile phone. As such it is a wonderful example of the new, creative services that will emerge for the mobile phone. And I have used the Shazam service personally many times, it has also that magical quality that guarantees its market success: it is fun! I congratulate Shazam for bringing our industry something that was never possible before."

Shazam's Claus Nehmzow, International Development Director commented “winning Tomi Ahonen’s Pearl of the Year is a very exciting confirmation that Shazam’s revolutionary new music service is well received by consumers and industry experts alike. Music appeals to all people, and using Shazam doesn’t require any special mobile handsets, it works on every phone and is easy to use. In the future, Shazam’s basic music recognition will link to other services, including sending a “song mail” with a 30 second clip to a friend, using a song that someone likes and has just “tagged”. The interest of mobile operators around the world in Shazam has been tremendous since we launched so successfully in the UK last August. “

For full press release see [Press Release Pearl of Year]

To see Shazam's website see [Shazam.com]

To comment or to contact Tomi Ahonen, please send e-mail to tomi@tomiahonen.com

Tomi's specialty is on how to make money with new mobile services, today! He has already discussed more than 400 service ideas with various industry inside audiences, and at public conferences has discussed openly over 250 new service ideas. Most of his over 100 press quotes include new service mentions. Tomi Ahonen is probably the most prolific new mobile service evangelist in the world. Tomi collects new service ideas into what he calls "Pearls" - existing mobile services described on one slide. Pearls describe services which are making money for someone already somewhere in the world, and most Pearls are easily and immediately implementable anywhere. His collection includes over 300 currently valid Pearls and countless historical ones.

If you are interested in new services, Tomi's first book, Services for UMTS, includes 200 potential service ideas - many relating to his collection of Pearls. In Tomi's second book, m-Profits: Making Money from 3G, apart from examining the revenues and profits of 170 potential new service ideas, there are also 50 real services from around the world. To see more about the books, click either

[Services for UMTS] or [m-Profits: Money & 3G]

Pearls are collected by Tomi T Ahonen, 3G Strategy Consultant. A Pearl is a real world mobile service making money today, described on one slide. If you like these, please contact Tomi Ahonen for many many more.

To send e-mail about Pearls or to request workshop availability or for any other contact, please send e-mail to tomi@tomiahonen.com

If you have found a Pearl and would like to submit it as a single page Powerpoint slide, please include the public reference where it is mentioned, and send it to pearl@tomiahonen.com

Tomi talks about Pearls always in his presentations. To see Tomi's upcoming and past conference speakerships see [Tomi Conferences]

His first book, Services for UMTS features over 200 services in detail, see [Services for UMTS]

For recent press coverage of Tomi Ahonen see [See Tomi in Press]

For business consulting workshops and services see [3G Workshops & Consulting]

Biography of Tomi T Ahonen [Biography Tomi T Ahonen]

To return to the top of tomiahonen.com, click here [Return to Top]