Spotify: Shazam

Shazam can identify a song in seconds, but Spotify doesn’t get an action in the Shortcuts app, so the two never talk to each other on their own. This shortcut bridges that gap. It runs Shazam, takes whatever it hears, and pushes the track straight into your Spotify library through the Spotify API, no copy-pasting or app-switching in between.

How it works

You trigger it, the shortcut listens with Shazam, and once it has a match it calls the Spotify API to add that track to your Liked Songs. Keep a few playlists going and it can drop the song into one or more of those too, confirming each action so you know what landed where. Because the whole thing finishes in one pass, it works nicely as a Lock Screen or Home Screen widget you tap the moment a song catches your ear.

How to install

1. Tap Add Shortcut on this page to open it in the Shortcuts app.
2. Scroll the preview to the bottom and tap Add Shortcut to confirm.
3. Make sure the Shazam app is installed, since the shortcut hands the listening step off to it.
4. Set up Spotify API access before your first real run (see the next section).

Setting up the trigger

This shortcut exists because Spotify publishes no Shortcuts actions, so everything routes through the Spotify API, which needs a one-time authorization. A companion Spotify: API Auth shortcut handles the OAuth flow and stores the credentials this one reads. Grab and run that helper first, follow its in-app instructions, and you’re done with setup for good.

Once authorization is in place, the payoff is the trigger you attach. A widget is the most useful setup:

1. Long-press your Lock Screen or Home Screen and add a Shortcuts widget.
2. Pick Spotify: Shazam as the widget’s shortcut.
3. Tap it whenever a song is playing nearby, and the listen-and-save runs without opening anything.

Its author swapped out the stock Shazam button on their own Lock Screen for exactly this, a fair signal of how it’s meant to be used day to day.

Customizing it

Where songs end up is the main thing worth tailoring. Out of the box it adds to Liked Songs, but it also supports multiple playlists, so you can point it at a running “discoveries” list, a workout list, or a few at once and let it confirm each add. If you’d rather not pick a destination every time, wiring in your preferred playlist up front keeps the tap quick.

Version 11 also added private logging: the song and artist, the date and time, and the street address where you Shazamed it. It’s there because the author kept wanting to remember where a track came into their life, and it stays on your device rather than going anywhere. If that’s not for you, the logging step is yours to remove.

Troubleshooting

Nothing gets added to Spotify. This almost always means the API authorization didn’t complete. Run the Spotify: API Auth companion again and follow its prompts before retrying.

Shazam can’t identify the song. That’s a listening problem, not a shortcut bug. Get closer to the source or wait for a clearer section of the track, then tap again.

The shortcut asks to update before running. It’s built to always run the latest version of its template, so let the update finish and it proceeds normally.

FAQ

Does this need Spotify Premium?

It talks to your account through the Spotify API rather than playing audio, so what matters is whether your account can authorize the API and write to your library. Run the companion auth shortcut once and you’ll know straight away.

Why can’t it just use a built-in Spotify action?

Spotify doesn’t ship any actions for the Shortcuts app, which is the whole reason the author went the API route. That OAuth handshake is simply the price of getting the two to cooperate.

Can I send a Shazamed song to more than one playlist?

Yes, multi-playlist support landed in an earlier version, so a single tap can drop the track into several lists and confirm each one.

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