Egyptian TA Telecom signs mobile services agreement with UK-based Shazam Entertainment

Details: Category: Consumer Ecosystems; 09 November 2007; 10423 views

Mobile music specialist Shazam and Egyptian telecom provider TA Telecom today announced an agreement which will see Shazam Music Discovery enable all TA Telecom customers discover and purchase new tracks as they are heard via mobile music recognition...

The service will be widely available in the MENA region, including Egypt, KSA, UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain. Due to the design and simplicity of the service, users will also be able to access the service from anywhere within the region using an international number. The agreement will see Shazam Music Discovery made available to all TA Telecom customers, enabling users to discover and purchase new tracks through mobile music recognition at the moment they are heard and to subsequently manage their discoveries and engage with like-minded users. The enhanced proposition offers the ability for users to discover and purchase multiple formats of music including ringtones, full-track downloads and CDs, all through their mobile phone.

Shazam works by end-users holding their phone to the music for 5 to 10 seconds while it identifies the track using a process based on unique “fingerprints” and immediately sends the user an SMS with the name of the artist and song title. Having received the music recognition result, users can then choose to buy associated products (ringtones, full track music, wallpapers etc), to find out more about the track or artist, or to engage with like-minded fans. To use Shazam's music recognition service, customers do not need any additional hardware or software for their mobile phone, and no user registration is required.

Andrew Fisher, CEO of Shazam, comments: “The MENA territories are culturally diverse and display significant levels of usage of value added services in the wireless sector. The Shazam Music Discovery service adds significant value in this market, and we are delighted to be working with TA Telecom as a trusted partner to successfully launch Shazam services across such a large region.”

* TA Telecom, established in 2000, has offices in Egypt, UAE and Saudi Arabia, and strategic technical partners in Canada, USA, United Kingdom, Germany, and Switzerland. It current strategy entails strong regional expansion strategy to bolster its position as a wireless services provider in the Middle East and Africa.

** Shazam Entertainment is a mobile-to-web music services provider, enabling consumers to experience music through discovery, purchase and interaction with others across mobile devices and the Internet and boasting 11 million mobile and 1 million web users since launch. HQed in London, England, Shazam's solutions enhance the music strategies of carriers in more than 19 countries throughout the US, Europe and MENA, including Verizon, AT&T, Vodafone and Motorola.

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