Shazam on Android adds better Google Play Music integration

Shazam, the popular music-identification app, is announcing some deeper integration for Google Play Music users. Now, when you identify a song with the app, you’ll see a big Google Play Music bar with buttons for listening, buying, or starting a radio station from the song.

It’s a small but useful feature that’s combined with another small but useful feature: a Google Play Music radio station that’s based on the last song they’ve identified in Shazam.

But I’ve buried the lede: to promote the new integration, Google is offering a three-month Google Play Music subscription trial for One American Dollar. And I know what you’re thinking: Google Play Music is only for hardcore Android people who listen to nerdy podcasts like The Vergecast. However! What you’re forgetting is that a Google Play Music subscription is, for all intents and purposes, the same thing as a YouTube Red subscription — which means for a buck you can get three months of zero ads in YouTube and download videos for offline viewing.

Shazam will still have big buttons and integrations with other music apps: Spotify, Pandora, Rhapsody, and even Amazon Music. But on Android, it looks like Google Play Music is going to be the preferred partner for a while.

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect the fact that the radio station in Google Play is based solely on the last song identified in Shazam.