Dolby and Philips also have a bunch of patents. It seems like basically any version of audio fingerprinting has been patented. So unless you can come up with a fundamentally different algorithm, you're going to get sued.

Thanks for the links. I know in the US patenting an algorithm is legal but this is not the case in Europe where patenting any software is not legal. If this was the case I wonder why streaming services based in Europe such as Spotify or Soundcloud don't offer it considering the algorithms are well known.

You fingerprint a song you don't know who the artist is and when you identify it you add it to your library or a playlist.

Contrast this to now with you would like to know what artist performs a song and you Shazam a song in one app and then when you identify it you open up Deezer or Spotify or whatever and then have to type it in the search box and then add it to your library or a playlist.

By integrating fingerprinting you can identify and add new music all in the same app.