What’s the name of that song? Find it and phone it through to me will you!

Next time you’re at a rowdy party, in a bar or club, or simply listening to the radio, and you hear a great song but can’t remember the song’s name let alone the artist who is singing it, just let your mobile phone have a listen and get back to you with the answers. Even better, then go and download it from your site on the Internet and make multiple copies– legally! The Australian version of this system is said to recognise about 1.8 million songs.

Impulsive music lovers now need only dial a number and almost immediately receive a text message with the details of the music track. Not only that, it can even let you pay to download the song then and there. While you’re at it why not get the song as a new ring tone for your phone. The Australian Performing Rights Association has predicted that mobile phone users will spend about $20 million downloading ring tones this year alone.

Launched in Australia under the name Bazook, this service allows fans to buy songs as well as merely recognise them. Instead of using a credit card all charges automatically appear on mobile phone bills. It even seems to work on some pretty obscure tracks.

Bazook is a type of technology service that can listen to music over an ordinary mobile phone. It then matches what it is hearing against a database of over 1.8 million sound tracks. It doesn’t matter where the user is, even in noisy places like bars and pubs, but the music must be LOUD. The designers say that it has the capacity to tell the difference between an original track and any of its remixes.

It uses a UK patent-pending technology to do the music matching, a kind of music fingerprinting. When you call in with a song to be matched, the system creates a 'fingerprint' of the sound coming in from your mobile and then searches through the 'fingerprint' database for a matching duplicate.

How Does Bazook work?

The Bazook music service uses a database of recording "fingerprints" to identify tunes played to it over a mobile phone. A message identifying a tune is sent as a SMS to the caller, who can then use a password to get the song as a ring tone or as a legal Windows music file (WMA) download.

In the Bazook system, a user calls the service number and plays a tune "down the phone" at the service. Once the song is identified, its name and the artist will be returned to the user via SMS (Short Message Service).

The identifying SMS will also give the user a password associated with that song. The password gives them download access to the song from the Bazook’s website, either to obtain it as a ring tone or as a copy-protected Windows media file.

How would I download my songs from the Internet?

Firstly you will need to register on the Bazook website, by entering your mobile number and your password. You can then view the list of songs you have tagged on the “View My Tags “ page. This page is a permanent list of all the tracks that you've tagged.

You can “tag” a song or music track using the following method:

1. Dial a certain number on your mobile phone when you hear the music that interests you.
2. Point your mobile at the point of sound, ie the speakers, and let the system “listen” for about 20-30 seconds, then hang up
3. A SMS is then sent back to you with the name of the track and artist.

Where can I use this service?

Pretty much anywhere in the Australia. You can be at home, in the car, at the pub or anywhere just so long as the music is loud enough and you have mobile reception. It doesn't matter what source the music is coming from - radio, CD, Internet, TV or whatever you can think of.

Of course as the music must have been pre recorded, it can’t be live music. Apart from vinyl and classical music, Bazook has almost every song available. It will of course work with music that is recorded live - such as CDs of concerts, etc.

What kind of phone service is needed?

Bazook will be made available initially only to Optus and Vodafone customers, who will need to dial a specified number and hold their phone up to get a sound sample. After 20 seconds the phone will cut off, and the Bazook database will send an SMS with the details of the track. Each identified song will cost $1.10.

If the track is available for download, customers would then be offered a choice of replying to the SMS with the single letter 'K' (to download via the internet) or 'J' to download a ring tone. Both methods will cost the subscriber $3.50.

If your track isn't tagged however, you should only be charged for the cost of your call with your mobile operator.

Who is behind this system?

Doug Carlson, perhaps better known to many as the person who founded Greengrocer.com during the “dot com bubble” era and sold the business to Woolworths, is managing director of the SMS payment provider B33hive.

At the moment, Bazook (known as other names in other countries) is available in Australia, Finland, the UK and in Germany on Vodafone. The service is not available on the international roaming capacity.

Arthur Hissey
Computer Research & Technology
www.crt.net.au