You're actually thinking of another company, Landmark Digital. They are the ones who own the algorithm now, not Shazam. I know this because I actually worked at Landmark! That was quite some time ago. And even then, I was of course not authorized to talk about this. So I won't. If it makes you feel any better, Landmark Digital is in the process of being dismantled. Everybody there is getting absorbed back into their corporate parent, the music industry company BMI.

I worked with Avery Wang, the guy who wrote the music recognition algorithm. I took his code and wrote servers and stuff around it, for Landmark's own ends.