Shazam'd!
The story of how Shazam decided to serve me a push ad via Apple's iOS Push Notification (APN) service.
Update! Oct 15th. Looks like the folks at Shazam did the right thing and removed push ads from their app. You can read more about it here.
- A while back I installed Shazam Encore, a paid version of the Shazam app on my iPhone. Last night this happened:
(Here's a photo of the push notification in question:)
- In the middle of the night, Shazam sends me a tip on how to turn it off.
They are obviously confused. This isn't about turning off ads, this is about the fact that serving ads via APN is at best, disgusting and at worst, against Apple's regulations.
I answered back:
- A little later:
OK, at this point it's become clear that Shazam is going to try and blame this on me. That I'm to blame because I said yes to a dialog I've said yes to in over a hundred other apps. That it's cool to violate user trust in a ads-everywhere world.
Well, not on my iPhone.
To clarify, push notifications were meant to alert users with useful info. You were just followed by a friend. Someone liked the photo you posted. Someone bid on your item. They were never, ever meant to become a mechanism for unsolicited (or even solicited) marketing. Ask anyone at Apple that came up with the program and I guarantee they'd agree.
While I felt that serving me ads via APN was wrong (and gross), I wasn't 100% sure what Apple's official stance was on the issue. So I logged into my ADC account and read the agreement that all iOS developers had to sign (including myself) to release apps on the App Store.
Here's what I found:
You can read iOS Developer Program License Agreement here.
If an Apple app reviewer had seen this ad get pushed while they were testing Shazam Encore, it would have been rejected for violating the terms of their agreement. The fact that they weren't caught is irrelevant. If you let one slimy marketer get away with this then it won't be long before your iOS notification center is overrun with Viagra ads. None of us want that (I hope.)
Let me end with this. I think that Shazam is a wonderful service. They have a great technology that they put in the hands of music lovers everywhere. And it works great. I love the fact that they've monitized via the Encore "pro" app and found a secondary revenue stream via affiliate links (basically, any time you buy a song via Shazam they get a cut.) But push ads cross the line.
If you think push ads are wrong, make sure and tell Shazam. I'd like to see them do the right thing on their own without involving Apple with an official complaint.
