For all its undoubted progress, it’s arguable that the mobile content business has taken just two brands into the public consciousness. One is Crazy Frog. The other is Shazam. Late last year, Fox pronounced the moped-riding amphibian dead. So that just leaves the music ID service. Happily, it’s never been in better health: Shazam currently claims around 35 million regular users.

The music ID sector, which essentially consists of Shazam and its close competitor Gracenote, always looked like a good bet for long term success. While other mobile services could be seen as online offerings scaled down for the phone (what’s an operator download store if not iTunes but slower?), music ID is uniquely mobile: wherever you are, hold up that phone, ‘capture’ a few bars and wait for the results. Can’t do that with a Dell PC.

Of course, Shazam began life as an IVR system accessed by shortcode and monetised through premium SMS just like any off-portal service. But there was only so much life in that old model. The longer term vision was to get music ID apps embedded into handsets. That way, the service could be enriched (making it possible, for example, to tag tracks for later identification) and – crucially – the system could link users with content stores so that songs identified could be turned into ringtones or tracks bought.

So it was that Shazam and Gracenote began approaching handset manufacturers and operators with their compelling business propositions. Didn’t take long to bear fruit. Shazam closed a deal with Motorola in 2005, while Gracenote subsequently announced embedding deals with Sony Ericsson, LG and Samsung. It also works with AT&T, Virgin Mobile USA, KDDI, SK Telecom, KTF and Orange. In total, more than 200 million consumers used Gracenote’s mobile and other applications in 2008.  

The momentum is still strong. Significantly, a Shazam app is available on Android and the firm was one of the few partners mentioned when Nokia revealed those developing for its forthcoming app store launch. It will be interesting to see the approach of Gracenote here, given that it is owned by the Sony Corporation.

Generally, the emergence of the app store model has created valuable opportunities for the music ID firms – giving them a platform to encourage downloads to millions of devices that could be otherwise difficult to reach. On top of that, the PR can be stupendous. Sprint has run a TV ad for the iPhone App Store based around Shazam alone, while newspaper ads in the UK have also featured it heavily.

Andrew Fisher, CEO of Shazam, says: “We’ve got around four million iPhone users now, which is amazing. But the spin-off publicity boost has been just as important for us.”

Of course, the true commercial test of all this progress is the extent to which users are clicking through to download stores.

Fisher adds: “On average 10 per cent click through to purchase. The category is really turning the corner. Music ID is not a novelty any more; it’s more like a utility. Our users now use Shazam ten times a month on average, compared to three to four when we first started offering the application.”

Although a rev share on downloads is one obvious business model for music ID specialists, it’s also possible to monetise consumers directly. Shazam and its partners sometimes charge users for premium versions of the app – AT&T, for example, charges $4.

You could barely get a ringtone for that.