Hasta La Gadget!

Shazam, an amazing app that lets you identify any song by just holding your phone up to it, has turned off the tap for its free users.

It has introduced a premium version of its app called Shazam Encore for $5 on the Android Market. The paid version of the app went live Tuesday evening.

That means Android users who now download the free version will get a seven-day premium trial, and if they don’t upgrade at the end of that they will  be limited to identifying and tagging just five songs a month.

Shazam hit prime time when it launched its app on the Apple App store in 2008. Since then it has gained 15 million users on the iPhone aone and has 75 million users overall.

In November 2009, Shazam introduced the paid version of its app for iPhone users. The premium version offers unlimited tagging of music and recommendations that suggest other music similar to the track that’s been tagged.

Users who downloaded and used the free app before the introduction of the paid version will continue to get all the features they had, including unlimited access. It’s a smart move on Shazam’s part to keep its existing users happy, while trying to make money off its product.

Photo: (Htwo/Flickr)