ShazamKit — Discipline

Core Philosophy

"Use SHManagedSession unless you need buffer-level control."

Mental model: ShazamKit has two eras. The iOS 15-16 era required manual AVAudioEngine plumbing via SHSession. The iOS 17+ era introduced SHManagedSession which handles recording, format conversion, and matching in a few lines. Always default to the modern path unless you need custom audio sources or signature-file matching.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• Adding song identification to an app (Shazam catalog matching)
• Building second-screen experiences synced to audio/video
• Creating custom audio catalogs for proprietary content
• Matching prerecorded audio (podcasts, TV episodes, lessons)
• Managing the user's Shazam library (add, read, remove)
• Generating audio signatures from files or buffers
• Debugging recognition failures or entitlement issues