Have you always been in a situation where you happen to hear a song you like, although there is no way to figure out which song it is? I am sure you have. It appears to us all, and that nagging feeling of “what song is this?” doesn’t seem to let go. If you have been in such a situation or find yourself in this situation too often, we have your back. Here are ten mobile and web apps to identify songs:
Virtual Assistants that Recognize Songs
Google Now
If you’re an Android user, and you can use the built-in virtual assistant, Google Now, to recognize songs playing around you. You can launch Google Now and say, “What song is this, “Name this song, or “What is this song, “also, Google Now will listen to it for a while and offer you with the results.
- Note this: Sadly, Google Now doesn’t seem to support this feature in India, yet we can confirm you that it does works in countries like the USA.
Cortana
If you’re a small group of people working on Windows phones, you can use Cortana to recognize music. Cortana is no incompetent for identifying songs, and you can ask it, “What song is playing? “or just a similar question, and it will determine the song for you. The feature is also available on Windows PCs, and then you don’t need to install song recognition apps on your Windows devices.
Note This Cortana app on iOS, and Android does not have this feature.
Siri
Siri is gradually (but surely) increasing in its capabilities, and it can integrate with lots of great third-party apps. One of the cool stuff you can do with Siri is to recognize music and identify songs. When you listen to a song you want to identify, you can launch Siri, and tell “What song is playing rightnow? “or just “Name that song, “or “Which song is that? “. Siri will then hear the song that is playing and tell you the song’s name.
You can also tap on the result to view the song in Apple Music and play it if you have subscribed to the music streaming service. If you are not an Apple Music subscriber, you will prefer to purchase the song or listen to a sample.
Music Recognition Apps to Find a Song
SoundHound
SoundHound is another excellent app when it comes to music recognition or identifying songs. Just an area where SoundHound is much better than Shazam is that you can even hum tunes to find a song. Also though, if you’re only humming a part of the song you want to recognize, the app works very well. This is most helpful when you don’t remember the lyrics for the song, and it is just a song you remember the tune to Launch SoundHound, & hum the tune to it. It works very well and can identify songs you hum, almost every time, which is pretty high.
SoundHound is as quick as Shazam is when it comes to identifying songs.
MusicID
MusicID is now another song recognition application you can use to figure out what song is playing around you. This application, especially the first time I launched it, didn’t seem to want to start listening, let alone recognize songs. Though, once the “listen at start” option was enabled, the app worked perfectly fine. You can launch the application, and it starts trying to recognize songs playing around you.
Once this application figures out what song is playing, it shows the result and even saves the app’s search to go through it later. These recognized songs are saved in the “Profile” section of the application, visible on the home page. Clicking on the saved songs brings up several other songs similar to the one the use recognized and a link to buy the song on Amazon.
Shazam
Shazam is one of the most famous applications when it comes to music recognition. Shazam is available on iOS, Android, and Windows devices, and it works very well. Even though Siri uses the Shazam database to identify songs. With Shazam, you can quickly identify music around you, find a song, and also get lyrics to sing along.
Suppose you don’t want to use Siri, Google Now, or Cortana to find out what song is playing around you, but Shazam is probably the best application. Moreover, Shazam also remembers the recognized songs, and it can also work when you’re offline. Therefore no matter whether you have a data connection, you will never be left wondering, “what song is this?”.
Musixmatch
Another application you can use to recognize songs – Musixmatch, is an app that you can use to identify songs that are playing around you quickly. This app is not just a music recognition application, but also a music player that you can use to play your music. If you need to use the app for song recognition, you can click on the hamburger menu icon, and then “identify lyrics.” This Musixmatch then tries to recognize the music playing & find a song that matches the audio fingerprint.
ACRCloud powers the song recognition in Musixmatch also works well.
Genius
Genius is another song finder application you can use to recognize music playing around you. This application opens up at the home screen, where you will be shown a list of songs that are the identified songs on Genius. You can click on any of these songs, to see their lyrics, and to play them, if you want. Also, this tool gives you the option to download the lyrics or share it with someone else.
There is a floating button for identifying music in the bottom right of the app. You can click on it to get the application to recognize songs, or you can click on the hamburger menu icon and click on identify songs to figure out what song is playing. This application works well, but unlike other apps like Shazam, and TrackID, it doesn’t save the songs you have identified with the app. Therefore, if that is a feature you have to have, then Genius is not for you.
TrackID
TrackID is a music identifier & song recognition application from Sony. This music recognition application is developed by Sony and powered by Gracenote, and it works very well. This can recognize music playing around you fast enough and give you the results. This song recognition is usually on point. Every time TrackID knows songs, it displays the result and saves it in the “History” tab on the app’s home page.
Along with this “History” tab, the application also comes with two other costs:
- Discover: This tab is most useful to identify songs that are trending or new. This application has a pretty decent list of songs in both the categories, so if you are looking for new songs, TrackID has you covered.
- Live: The Live tab in this application is a live feed of the songs that people identify worldwide. You can also click on the songs on the list, and get choices to play it on YouTube, share it, and more.
- Download: Android (Free, ad-supported)
Online Song Identifier
Midomi
Midomi is a song detector site you can use to identify music by merely humming or whistling the tune into your laptop mic. That can come in especially handy if you have a song stuck in your head, but you can’t name it. Launch the Midomi website, and hum the theme; the site will recognize the music & name that song.
This site also works if you use it when the song is playing around you, so you don’t necessarily have to whistle or hum the tune. Midomi takes its sweet time to recognize music, but it does work.
Use these Methods to Identify Songs
You can use any of the ten methods mentioned in this article to identify music playing around you. Even if you have a tune stuck in your head, some of the song recognition apps mentioned can classify songs even if you hum the tune. If you use virtual assistants like Siri, Google Now, or Cortana, you wouldn’t want any music recognition application on your phone, which is a good thing. If you would instead use online song recognition, websites like Midomi can easily recognize music for you.
As ever, we would like to know your thoughts about music recognition apps and song recognition websites. Suppose you know of any other way to identify music, let us know about them in the comments section below.
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