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    Pandora and Shazam invade real life for the holidays

    Pandora and Shazam invade real life for the holidays

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    Two of the biggest names in online music are entering the real world this Christmas. Shazam and Pandora have both announced new schemes to put the brands squarely into your holiday shopping.

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    Two of the biggest names in online music are entering the real world this Christmas. If you listen to Pandora on an iOS device, expect to receive targeted adverts for your local Best Buy. The ads will serve up specific deals from your nearest store, complete with a "Call now" button if you need any help. It's a neat idea, but how effective the ads are when the device is in your pocket is another matter.

    While Pandora's getting local, Shazam's getting physical. The tagging service is bringing music discovery into Calvin Klein stores, designing "music installations" that will appear in the USA, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The installations look very similar to listening posts in record stores, with a couple of pairs of headphones which play an exclusive christmas track when picked up. Customers who tag the track with Shazam will receive a free download of the song, plus extras including in-store discounts and Calvin Klein wallpaper for their device. These aren't the first web-bound services to try and encroach into the real world — Foursquare, Google Wallet, and Facebook Checkins have all tried to grasp the domain — but it's a first for some of the less likely players, and we're expecting to see a lot more of it soon. 

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