Music is passion, music is cathartic. Everyone has a favorite song. A song which sets their mood right even when they are feeling blue. With a wide variety of music available thanks to the internet, people are exposed to music from all spheres of the world.
Many times you might find the tune or song familiar but are unable to recognize it as the lyrics elude you. It is quite frustrating as this thing keeps nagging at the back of your mind. How you wish there was someone who could help you identify the song.
What Song Is This? Find Out Online
This is a problem that has been plaguing many individuals everywhere. This has led to the search for music recognition services. Internet is full of options to aid people who wish to identify music they have heard off the internet, radio or any other place.
Having a virtual assistant like Siri is a great help. All Apple devices have the option of asking Siri what the song is. You could type the lyrics or record the music and find out the song.
For Android users, Google Now is the equivalent of Siri, while Cortana is the virtual assistant in Windows phone. For other devices, you can download song finding apps. Here’s a list of some of the sites/apps that can help you find out song names when you don’t know the lyrics.
Shazam
One of the most popular and recognized programs to find out the song that is playing is Shazam. This mobile application can be used with any type of phone (Windows, Android, iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia, and even iPod, albeit, with an external microphone). Its popularity can be attributed to the fact that it is extremely easy to use.
All you need to do is to download the app, hold your phone close to the sound source, and hit the Tag button to let the application identify the music. It works with pre-recorded music and not live performances. With the free version, you can identify around 5 different tracks per month, but the paid version lets you identify unlimited tracks.
Midomi
More often than not, tunes become earworms. You keep humming the tune relentlessly, wondering what song it is. Well, you won’t have to wonder that anymore, thanks to Midomi! All you need to do is grab a microphone and hum the tune and the app will do the rest.
Alternately, you could play a recording of the song to have it identified. A free version is available for web interface as well as mobile apps for Windows, iPhones and Android phones. The best part is that it can identify songs from even a 10-second clip, lyrics, and name of song or artist. However, not all songs are in the Midomi database.
Wat Zat Song
Though shocking, there are times when even a computer fails to accomplish a given task. What if the song you have been searching on the internet is not available in the database?
In such a scenario, you could ask humans to identify it! WatZatSong is a community-driven, a social site where members, as well as visitors of site, provide their input in identifying the song. You can upload an audio recording of the song or you can post a humming of it.
Though not as fast as similar sites, it is sometimes quite efficient. Unfortunately, wrong lyrics or inaudible samples won’t get you proper results.
Musipedia
Designed with Wikipedia as inspiration, the site is good if you wish to find out classical music, but also works well with another genre too. You can make use of either the virtual piano keyboard to play the song or hum/whistle it using the microphone.
After confirming the input, the app searches through its vast database to find out the song. Unlike other options, it will only find options that exactly match the recording.
Melody Catcher
This site uses a Java-based virtual keyboard and mouse clicks to enter and search for a particular melody. The first few notes of the tune are sufficient for MelodyCatcher to find matching songs from across the internet.
Sound Hound
This is another popular app that can help you recognize a song even by simply humming it. If you know some part of the lyrics or just the tune, the app works to find out the song your heart desires.
The app is quite precise and extremely fast. What’s more, it even lets you post the results on social media too. The app works well on all mobile platforms like Windows, Android, iPhone, blackberry, etc.
NameMyTune
This site also takes help from other contributors. You can post a recording or short clip of the song along with the genre and era you think it belongs to. If and when your song is recognized by the people, you will be alerted via an email.
Musixmatch
This app helps you find out the song based on the few lyrics you remember of it. The app requires voice recognition to identify the song playing around you. The app can also be used to play music from your music library apart from identifying songs from lyrics and matching it with the audio input provided by you.
Track ID
This track finder app from Sony works extremely efficiently, recognizing the song in very less time. The app has 3 tabs – the Live tab, which helps identify the song playing in the background; the Discover tab, which helps identify the latest songs (divided into various categories) and the History tab where your song related searches are saved.
AudioTag
You can identify a song with a small recording of it by using the music recognition service – Audio tag. The application searches through its vast music database to identify the particular song.
Apart from the above mentioned apps and virtual assistants available, there are a number of other programs and sites which help you identify the song that has been playing on your mind. These include Lyrster, Audiggle, Tunatic, etc.
