London-based music identification business Shazam has acquired Synchronized Lyrics as part of its plan to expand the capabilities of its smartphone application ‘app’.

London-based music identification business Shazam has acquired Synchronized Lyrics as part of its plan to expand the capabilities of its smartphone application ‘app’.

The Shazam app identifies music tracks by recording a segment of the song, and then pairing it up with another from its database.

As a result of the deal, Shazam, which produces a mobile phone app for handsets such as iPhone and HTC, is to launch Shazam LyricPlay, a new feature designed to allow customers to view lyrics synchronized in real-time with the music they are listening to.

Shazam chief executive officer, Andrew Fisher, comments: ‘Shazam leads the marketplace for mobile discovery and we constantly strive to develop even greater consumer experiences.

‘We are committed to make the necessary investments to build or acquire innovative technology in order to enhance these experiences as we continue to innovate and enhance the world’s leading mobile discovery service.’

The deal comes after Shazam recently announced that it was integrating a feature into its service which allowed users to share their music via the social networking website Facebook.

In December 2010, Shazam announced that the company had reached 100 million users worldwide, ten years after the service had first launched as a mobile specific discovery service.

It started out as a dial in service, with customers receiving an SMS text with the result.