Intrasonics' Music Recognition Technology: How It Differs From the Competition and How Broadcasters Can Benefit

Music recognition technology is a hot topic in the music industry. But while Shazam, Spotify, and Pandora are all fighting for their piece of the market share, there’s another similar technology that was developed with another audience in mind; broadcasters.

The Different Goals of Music Recognition Technologies

Intrasonics’ tech is developed for broadcasting professionals with one goal: to identify when and what station your audience is listening to at any given time.

That means it can’t tell you what track is playing on your playlist or if you’ve got a song stuck in your head - but it will be able to tell when BBC Radio 1 plays Justin Bieber’s “Peaches” at 4.PM on a Tuesday afternoon!

While Intrasonics’ technology can compete with Shazam’s, the focus is more on broadcasters than the general public trying to identify music.

As a result, Intrasonics don’t use databases to detect which music is playing, but rather which station is being listened to and when.

What’s the difference between Intrasonics’ Technology and Shazam’s Technology?

Music recognition technology is not a new concept, but the difference in approach between Intrasonics and Shazam means that they’re both trying to solve different problems.

Shazam operates by recognising music playing before it’s finished and providing metadata from a database about what track is playing - including lyrics, artist, album cover etc.

Intrasonics’ strategy of broadcast oriented technology (rather than music recognition and identification) allows for more accurate radio and TV tracking.

It will return information on when programmes start and end as well as the name of the programme currently being broadcast live.

Example of the Differences in Technology

Say BBC Radio One is playing Justin Bieber’s “Peaches” at four o’clock in the afternoon.

Shazam will recognise that the listener is listening to Justin Bieber’s “Peaches”, but it will have no idea whether you’re playing Spotify or BBC Radio One.

Intrasonics tech will recognise that the listener is listening to BBC radio one at four o’clock and display this information live on-screen.

How does the Intrasonics audio recognition tech work?

Our technology works in two steps:

1. The Intrasonics music recognition technology doesn’t involve building a music database to match audio - instead, our database is connected to the broadcast stations to tune in to live broadcasts.

2. The app can synchronise the user’s experience to the broadcast by comparing their audio exposure to the live audio broadcast.

All of this data will then be sent back through our mobile app for broadcasters, so they can see whether listeners tuned in at the time of their broadcast or missed out.

Having this information provides broadcasters with multiple new opportunities to engage and promote to their audience.

Click here for a free demo, or contact our team today.

What New Opportunities Does This Audio Recognition Technology Provide For Broadcasters?

• Accurate Insights

Broadcasters can get a more accurate count of how many people tuned into their broadcast.

This will allow broadcasters to gauge which content is popular and which content may (or may not) need additional promotion, or even changing altogether.

This also allows them to find out which parts of broadcasts were most interesting for listeners to determine whether or not it was worth the time on-air. TV ad tracking is also possible.

As a result, broadcasters can take actions like tailoring their content to the right audience at the right time.

The insights generated from our database, which come back through our mobile app, can inform these critical decisions.

• Cross-device Measurement

The Intrasonics technology can also monitor which device listeners are listening to on-the-go, as well.

This is a big advantage for broadcasters because it’s no longer just about the broadcast they put out there live; now we have some idea of not only how many people are tuning in and when, but also on what device they’re tuning in on.

Broadcasters can use this information to measure their overall reach across devices, which will allow them to know if different content on different devices attracts more viewership or listeners.

• Impact on broadcaster’s audience and users

Reward loyalty: detect regular listeners to the same broadcaster or content.

Intrasonics uses music recognition technology to help broadcasters know what times the same listeners are tuning in, which can be used to reward regular listeners and ensure they’re rewarded for their loyalty.

Reward new content: detect early adopters of broadcaster’s latest content

Broadcasters can also use the technology to see who the early adopters of content are and reward them with bonus content or other rewards.

Provide synchronised content:

Using our Hyperchannel technology, broadcasters can use second-screen interactivity to provide synchronised content to engage their users. Quizzes, polls, and even promoting products is possible on a second device while the audience watches or listens to a broadcast.

Provide analytics and connect it with user behaviour: Broadcasters can also use the Hyperchannel tech to study the impact of the TV or radio broadcast on the user through our analytics.

For example, what effect did the broadcast have on the user’s behaviour while interacting with the content?

Was an action taken? Did they purchase something or download an app? This data can then drive better-informed decisions for the broadcaster in future.

The technology provides an opportunity to advertise related products or services to the audience more accurately.

Why Work With Intrasonics?

In addition to our app solution for live broadcasting content, we also offer an SDK so broadcasters can use our technology in their existing mobile apps.

We also provide a Javascript decoder for your existing software that works in all modern mobile and desktop browsers.

This means all sorts of media companies who may already have a database and data collection capabilities, but don’t have music or audio recognition in place, could greatly benefit from our technology.

Click here for a free demo, or contact our team today.