Shazam is the most successful discovery app in the tech world with over 100 million active global users. Currently it offers a highly innovative service where it tracks music and most recently TV shows via the audio recognition functionality, allowing users to directly link out to purchase the song or episode.

Now it aims to expand into wider sectors and first up is the indispensable retail market.

The technology fills users with joy when they can’t quite remember the name or title of a song or TV show is now going to be implemented within more than just sounds. The forthcoming extension will work within the existing app, using the same infamous blue button, but will enable consumers to now recognise retail products such as grocery items. Hypothetically speaking, when a participating brand’s pasta sauce is ‘Shazamed,’ the app could reveal information on its heritage, further recipes or additional nutritional facts.

Similarly in the world of fashion,  the app will let you find the clothes you love in seconds. If you’ve ever fallen in love with a piece of clothing and had trouble tracking it down, new technology being developed by the brains behind the music identifying app, could be the answer to your prayers.

What’s more, according to Shazam CEO, Andrew Fisher, this new fashion app isn’t far away. “We have the ability to identify the product in a TV show so that when somebody Shazams it, they could find out where a presenter’s dress is from in one click”.

Shazam has also been part of several high profile TV collaborations, most recently during the BRIT Awards ceremony, when users of the app were given special behind-the-scenes access and links to engage directly on Twitter and Facebook. Fisher revealed that the brand hopes to repeat the trick on a wider scale with a new app that will replace the information button on your remote control and provide content such as cast lists, scripts and tweets from the actors.

‘With Shazam, individuals can access a cast list, details of the soundtrack, read tweets from the actors, check out the script, buy onscreen product and a whole lot more on their individual mobile devices without disrupting anyone else’s viewing.’

This idea of using Shazam for physical products opens many doors for the company. Moving into the retail sector means the amounts of partnerships the brand decides to get involved could be infinite, with each brand offering the user slightly different, bespoke information once Shazamed. There’s also the advertising opportunities to consider as the concept could really turn into a whirlwind of brand promotions, without the user necessarily noticing, or caring for that matter.