German authorities are considering using software akin to a smartphone app that would help them identify neo-Nazi music in seconds, SPIEGEL has learned. 
 
 The interior ministers of the country's 16 regional states will meet this week to discuss an new method dubbed "Nazi Shazam," in reference to the mobile phone-based music identification service Shazam, which can identify music bands and song titles from a short sample picked up via the phone's microphone. 
 
 The new software would let police quickly identify neo-Nazi rock music, which officials regard as a "gateway drug" into the far-right youth scene. 
 
 The regional police office in the eastern state of Saxony has developed a prototype system of registering audio fingerprints from neo-Nazi rock. It has the advantage of "sparing resources and enabling very quick investigations," said an internal government assessment. 
 
 Legal Concerns 
 
 Police could use it to recognize neo-Nazi music being played on Internet radio stations or to intervene quickly if it is played at gatherings. 
 
 Last year, the Federal Review Board for Media Harmful to Minors indexed a total of 79 pieces of music for espousing neo-Nazi ideology or having racist lyrics. The indexing imposes restrictions on sales and forbids them from being made accessible to people aged under 18. 
 
 It's unclear whether Germany's interior ministers will adopt the system, though. A number of legal issues need to be addressed before it can be deployed. For example, lawyers need to determine whether the automatic identification of music being played in a hall would constitute acoustic surveillance. ||||| Software would allow authorities to act immediately if illegal far-right songs are played on radio, at clubs or in public 
 
 German authorities are considering equipping police with a smartphone app that would instantly recognise illegal neo-Nazi songs. 
 
 Already dubbed the "Nazi Shazam", after the music identification programme, the software would allow authorities to react instantly if far-right songs are played on radio stations, at concerts, club nights or demonstrations. 
 
 The interior ministers of Germany's 16 regions will discuss the new practice at a meeting in Osnabrück this week. 
 
 Considered by experts as a "gateway drug" to the neo-Nazi scene, 1,090 pieces of music with a far-right or racist message are currently indexed by the Federal Review Board for Media Harmful to Minors, restricting their sale and making them inaccessible to people under 18. They include traditional Nazi marching songs as well as more recent songs by bands such as Hate Society, Zyklon B or the British group Skrewdriver. 
 
 Simone Rafael, of the website Network Against Nazis, said he approved of the initiative and that it would help police or watchdogs attending far-right events. 
 
 "Music is indeed a weak spot through which young people can easily be recruited into neo-Nazi circles," she told the Guardian. "A song can plug teenagers straight into the ideology conveyed through the lyrics." 
 
 In 2004, far-right groups tried to recruit young people by handing out CD compilations in schoolyards and youth centres. 
 
 Commonly referred to as "rechtsrock", neo-Nazi songs are often musically diverse, ranging from punk to heavy metal, and from folk to rap. "We've come across pretty much everything but far-right swing bands," said far-right expert Bernd Wagner. 
 
 Rafael said the only problem was that many far-right groups had already learned to avoid using the songs on the state index, instead favouring newer folk songs by nationalist singer-songwriters, such as Frank Rennicke, or German punk songs with a broader anti-establishment message.
– Want to stop neo-Nazis using music to spread hate? There's now an app for that. Police in Germany have developed a app dubbed "Nazi Shazam" which can detect banned far-right songs within seconds, Der Spiegel reports. The country's authorities have identified more than a thousand songs with racist or Nazi-praising lyrics and banned them from being accessed by people under 18. Police say the software will allow them to react instantly if banned songs are played at concerts, far-right gatherings, or on Internet radio stations. Authorities consider hate songs a "gateway drug" to the far-right scene. "Music is indeed a weak spot through which young people can easily be recruited into neo-Nazi circles," a spokeswoman for the Network Against Nazis website tells the Guardian. "A song can plug teenagers straight into the ideology conveyed through the lyrics." The neo-Nazi songs span genres from punk to heavy metal to folk and even rap music. "We've come across pretty much everything but far-right swing bands," says an expert on the far-right.