NEW YORK: Shazam, the music recognition app, is ramping up its offering for marketers as it seeks to make advertising central to its revenue stream.

The company has traditionally relied on selling data to the music industry and has also hosted banner ads, with occasional ads served when users wait for results.

But according to Greg Glenday, Shazam's chief revenue officer, ad revenue now constitutes the majority of its total revenue and he expects advertising revenue to be the fastest growing segment of its business.

"Advertising had always been secondary, but now we are putting it front and centre," he told Advertising Age. "We are taking advertising seriously by adding stock and people. We sold ourselves short with the advertising industry by just selling banner ads and being transactional."

To help meet its objective of generating substantially greater advertising revenue, Shazam has launched a suite of tools to help brand advertisers reach music fans.

Dubbed "Shazam for Brands", the new tools include data insights, which it says will give brands the chance to align themselves with up-and-coming artists by using analytics to predict potential hits.

There is also a tool for live events and for measuring the effectiveness of a brand's message through analysis of behavioural patterns.

"Today's launch introduces new technology and content tools for brands to utilise data and engagement in a way defined by the very audiences they seek," Glenday asserted.

Shazam gave an indication of its ambitions earlier this month when it teamed up with Coca-Cola for its "Share a Coke and a Song" campaign.

Fans of the campaign can scan the lyrics of popular songs from specially marked 20-ounce bottles onto the Shazam app, after which they are invited to record a digital "lip-sync" video and share their creation on social media.

Finally, Shazam also announced that Shazam for Brands will be the official music partner of the 2016 Cannes Lions in France, where it will organise the music between sessions and provide users with information about speakers and sessions.

Data sourced from Advertising Age, Shazam; additional content by Warc staff