Shazamers’ Tags Predict Breakthrough Acts for 2011

Millions of Tags Chart Real-Time Popularity of New Music Acts

LONDON, UK – December 16, 2010 - Shazam, the world’s leading mobile discovery provider, today announced its hotly anticipated predictions for the music acts most likely to succeed in 2011.

Unlike other, more subjective polls, Shazam’s chart is driven by the tagging behaviour of the millions of people who use the service to identify the latest and even pre-released music in clubs, bars, restaurants and shops as well as on the radio and TV.   More than three million tracks are Shazamed every day and the App’s reach across more than 200 countries gives an indication of potential global success for the chosen artists.

The emerging U.S acts chosen by Shazamers most likely to succeed are: Jay Electronica; MNDR; J Cole; CyHi Da Prynce; Wiz Khalifa.

The emerging UK acts chosen by Shazamers most likely to succeed are: Nero; Clare Maguire; Jessie J; James Blake and The Vaccines.

Shazam’s Music & Content Director, Will Mills, says; “The listening and buying public is the ultimate tastemaker and Shazamers have once again picked out some brilliant acts to watch in 2011, including Nero, Jessie J and Jay Electronica.

“Shazamers have had a great track record of choosing the breakout acts over the past three years, including highlighting Ellie Goulding and Nicki Minaj in 2010, Lady Gaga and Florence + The Machine in 2009 and The Ting Tings and Duffy in 2008. So this is one set of predictions people really need to take notice of.”

As well as its predictions for the year ahead, Shazam compiles weekly pre-release Tag Charts widely recognised in the industry as an accurate barometer of future hit records.  It also makes weekly Tag Charts available to users of its App from around the world and publishes a daily Blog www.shazamers.com to keep people up-to-date with the latest in music trends.

Shazam recently announced that its service had reached the 100 million user milestone.  Launched ten years ago as the first mobile specific discovery service, Shazam has evolved into an App phenomenon – so much so, that ‘Shazaming’ has become a verb, widely adopted by consumers for ‘content discovery’.

For consumers who don't yet have the Shazam application on their phone, it can be found on iTunes App Store, Android Market, the Ovi Store by Nokia, BlackBerry App World, Samsung App Store and Windows Phone Marketplace.