Wham Bam Shazam!

Shazam always struck me as a technology in need of a problem. Sure, the ability to recognise a piece of music as it was playing is sort of useful, but it hardly seems to justify a business model, let alone the tens of millions that Shazam has brunt through since it was founded.

But the company has survived and has now raised a further $32m (!) to take it into the TV discovery market.

The service claims 150m users - and it may well have had this number of people register over the past twelve years, but I doubt how many of these users are active. Naturally, the service has come into its own in the app world, where it's much easier to use and app than dial an SMS number to access the service.

So, I can see the VC pitch now - we have 150m users and the ability to leverage our technology into the second screen market for telly. Hmm, they might have a point. One worth watching...