Shazam's New Mac App Can Hear And Identify Music Playing Around Your Computer

Apple's partnership with Shazam is finally benefiting Mac users.

Though Apple's personal assistant Siri will now support Shazam's music identification software in iOS 8, Mac users can enjoy Shazam's features thanks to a new Mac-optimized application released Thursday, which listens to the music, TV shows or ads playing on or around your computer and identifies them.

According to TechCrunch, Shazam will install a menu bar application when you download the full app from the Mac App Store, which is free. When the Shazam app hears music being played, it will send you a short notification with the song, artist and album, all the while keeping a history of what's been played, just like the mobile app.

When you check out individual track listings of the songs that have been played, you can preview those songs, share it with a social network, or buy it on iTunes. Shazam also offers lyrics, related tracks and videos based on how other Shazam users interacted with that particular track.

The new Mac app isn't a huge development for Shazam, but it's a quiet little addition to the desktop experience that makes Shazam invisible, but still quite useful.

Shazam for Mac is free on the Mac App Store.