see a piece of art you like and want to know more about it? soon you could 'shazam' it shazam, the app created to recognise an artist from a few seconds of music, says it wants to branch out into identifying objects, such as food, paintings and books the london based company behind  the mobile app has raised $30 million from several unidentified billionaires to finance the change shazam, the app created to recognise an artist from a few seconds of music, says it wants to branch out into identifying objects, such as food, paintings and books  'shazam is already a verb,' chief executive rich riley told reuters at the mobile world congress industry fair in barcelona 'we want to expand the universe of  what you can shazam' the latest funding comes on top of $40 million raised  from mexican telecoms billionaire carlos slim in 2013 riley said these additional funds would help the  venture capital backed company add to its 250 strong staff and  sign additional partnerships with publishers and content  companies the london based company behind the mobile app has raised $30 million from several unidentified billionaires to finance the change the company has yet to reveal details about how it would work, but one possibility is that such a service would work based on bar codes  'the famous blue button that our users love will remain on  the home screen but will be able to do much more,' he said just in time for spring, scientists hope to launch a 'shazam for birds' that will help people identify the tweets that are waking them up in the morning the app, dubbed warblr, claims to be able to recognise the song of 88 bird species, and could help track their migration patterns like shazam, it works by recording nearby noises on smartphones to analyse it in real time and identify the bird species according to its tweet  whenever the app identifies a bird, geo tracking allows it to map which species is being spotted where and when, with the information made public the information will be made publicly available to allow zoologists and ecologists monitor species growth and decline, as well as patterns of migration the company has yet to reveal details about how it would work, but one possibility is that such a service would work based on bar codes this would make it similar to amazon’s fire phone which can already identify products by scanning these codes shazam has evolved markedly since 1999 when it was founded,  gaining popularity with its ability to recognise a piece of  music with the click of a button on the phone it now sells  songs that its users identify, having secured deals with all the  major streaming music services including spotify and deezer lately it has also become a port of call for advertisers who  want to find ways to instantly link up with their target  audiences although shazam does not disclose its revenues or other  financials, it says the latest funding round valued it at over  $1 billion it also has the attributes of a listed company, riley said,  such as a strong brand, scale and revenue, although the company  is not yet profitable since it is still seeking to grow 'our business model is real and developed, not to be  determined like so many web apps or start ups,' he said
shazam $30 million london
london based shazam has raised $30 million to finance the change  it will allow app to identify objects, such as food, paintings and books  the company has yet to reveal details about how exactly it would work 