It launched in Britain. I remember dialing 2580 in a nightclub, waving the phone around, and everyone being impressed when the identification was correct, as it usually was. Even with relatively obscure music.
A friend was in the beta and demoed it to us in a bar.. it was insane
In the UK you dialled 2580 from your (non smart) cellphone, it would hang up after a few seconds and you’d get an SMS right away with the ID of the track
Nitpick, but Shazam launched in 2002 as a dial-in service that replied with a text-message of the result. The first phone app was for BREW in 2006.
The 2008 date is just when Apple launched the app store; it was not possible for a third party to make an iPhone app before 2008.