The Semiotics of Shazam as Quasi-Subject. A Fine-grained Reading of a Practice through the Lens of Actantial Theory

This article analyses the practice of phonographic recognition through the Shazam application, employing the theoretical framework of structural-generative semiotics. The study frames Shazam as an apparatus of capture designed to render an unknown sonic object into a nameable and assimilable Object of value. The analysis breaks down the shazamatic practice into three syntagmatic phases (competentialization, performance, sanction), highlighting the shared agency of a collective assemblage of enunciation in which human and device operate as reciprocal prostheses. On the actantial level, the application does not function as a proper Greimassian Helper, since it does not transfer permanently Competence to the user, but rather configures itself as an oracular quasi-Subject. Finally, the text calls for a semiotics of passive Subjects, describing a model user characterized by a suspended competence and constantly set in reactive waiting for random encounters with the musical stimulus.