Secondhand Serenade tries to break a single through SoundHound

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With the Internet and digital technology vastly increasing the number of wannabe pop stars, recording artists have to go to greater and greater lengths to try to stand out in the crowd. The latest example: On Thursday morning, pop singer/guitarist John Vesely released his new single through a smartphone app.

The app -- SoundHound -- is primarily a tool to identify unknown songs. SoundHound can identify tracks from a few seconds of audio, whether it’s coming out of a speaker or being hummed by a reasonably tuneful user. (It can also name tracks based on a sampling of their lyrics.)

With Vesely (who records under the name Secondhand Serenade), SoundHound is adding a new wrinkle to its capabilities. From 72 hours starting at 7 a.m. Thursday, people who search for tracks on SoundHound will not only find what they were looking for, but also a link at the top of the screen inviting them to hear a new single by Secondhand Serenade. They’ll also be invited to buy the track (at iTunes if they’re iPhone or iPad users, at Amazon.com if they’re on an Android device), read the lyrics, watch Secondhand Serenade videos or learn more about the band.

It’s an intriguing idea, although it may wind up helping SoundHound more than Vesely. The artist has been telling his fans in recent weeks to download SoundHound in order to take part in an undisclosed special event, and they’ve responded in droves, helping to build the audience for the app. San Jose-based SoundHound uses a freemium business model; to perform more than five music-recognition searches per month, users have to upgrade from the free version to the paid ($5) one.

It seems unlikely that the average user of SoundHound will respond to the Secondhand Serenade banner with the same passion. It’s a bit like a sporting goods store offering everyone who walks in a coupon for a soccer ball -- the shoppers probably are sports lovers, but that doesn’t mean they have any interest in soccer.

Katie McMahon, vice president of SoundHound, was more sanguine about the app’s ability to help artists of all genres. IPad users in particular treat SoundHound as a music-discovery tool, making frequent visits to the charts in the app that show which tracks are popular or recently played. Even if they’re not fans of the genres displayed, ‘out of maybe boredom or curiosity, they’re apt to tap and go onward.’ Anyone who ventures onto SoundHound’s ‘What’s Hot’ page will be prompted to listen to the Secondhand Serenade song for free, which should at least generate a lot of exposure for the track -- according to the company, SoundHound is the top-ranking music app in the Apple, Android and Nokia Ovi app stores.

Still, SoundHound would promote artists more effectively if it could target their pitches to listeners who might actually like their music. McMahon said the company does a composite profile today of all its users’ activity to create an ‘underplayed’ chart, which highlights tracks which have generated a lot of interest among SoundHound users but don’t get much airplay on radio. But it hasn’t developed a way to discern individual users’ preferences and deliver personalized recommendations, she said.

McMahon declined to disclose what, if any, financial terms were involved in the arrangement with Vesely and his label, Glassnote Entertainment.

-- Jon Healey

Healey writes editorials for The Times’ Opinion Manufacturing Division.