Find Music by Sound: 7 Best Song Recognizers in 2023

There are over a hundred million songs in the world and the number is increasing each day. With that number, the chances of listening to a song that you really like and not knowing the title or the artist are pretty high. 

The old-school trick to identifying an unknown song is to try to catch one or two sentences of the lyrics and look for it in a search engine such as Google. This method works most of the time but definitely not for some instrumental genres such as classical, dance, electronic, and jazz. 

There are apps for smartphones such as SoundHound, TrackID, MusicID, and Bing Audio that make it so much easier to recognize unknown songs. You simply run the app and touch a button to start recording a short clip to perform the music recognition. 

Best tools to find songs by sound

It’s also possible to perform music recognition through free software or online services on your desktop. Let’s review the products to see how they work in real situations. 

1. Shazam – Best tool for finding songs by sound overall

Shazam tool for finding songs by sound
  • Operating System: iOS, Android, WatchOS, MacOS, Google Chrome, and Wear OS
  • Pricing: Freemium
  • Developer: London-based Shazam Entertainment

Shazam is an online application that can identify movies, music, TV shows, and Ads based on short samples. The application is available on Android, Mac, iOS, WatchOS, wear OS, and Google Chrome app store. 

The software identifies songs through an audio fingerprint created based on a time-frequency graph called a spectrogram. It has a large catalog of spectrograms in a database

You can hum, sing, or play a short audio snippet of the song, and the app will try to identify it from the database of millions of songs. When it finds a match, it’ll show you information regarding the song title, artist, and album.  

Pros

  • The software identifies songs through sound
  • Has a large database of songs from other places
  • It recognizes songs within a few seconds
  • It’s easy to use

Cons

  • Sometimes it doesn’t recognize songs

Download Shazam

2. SoundHound – Best for speech recognition 

SoundHound identify songs by sound
  • Operating System: iOS, and Android
  • Pricing: Freemium
  • Developer: SoundHound AI Inc

SoundHound is an audio and speech recognition app that develops natural language understanding, sound recognition, and search tech. It understands most speech patterns and responds accordingly to meet customer demands. 

You can use the app to search for lyrics, artists, or albums on your phone. If you can remember a few words, the app will list down the most probable options. If you only remember the tune or voice, hum or sing to the app and it’ll find the song for you. 

After identifying the song, the app allows you to add the lyrics to your Apple Music or Spotify playlist. You can also utilize their YouTube player and stream the music at any time. You can use the app for free if you’re okay with Ads. 

Pros

  • Discover music playing around you 
  • Find music lyrics and integrate them into your Apple Music or Spotify
  • Search a song by singing the chorus
  • Discover songs by popular artists and trending hits

Cons

  • It requires payment to access most features

Download SoundHound

3. MusiXmatch – Great for searching for songs in a large database of items

musixmatch voice search songs from a database
  • Operating System: iOS and Android
  • Pricing: Freemium
  • Developer: Musixmatch

The music recognition feature called “Music ID” found in MusiXmatch is powered by Gracenote, Gracenote has the largest database of music and video metadata. 

This would mean that MusiXmatch has the ability to recognize a lot of songs. The desktop version of MusiXmatch is also quite similar to Shazam in the sense that it is only available for Windows 8.1 via the Windows Store.

MusiXmatch primarily aims to find and match lyrics to your music tracks found on your computer. You can find the Music ID function by right-clicking anywhere on the app and selecting Music ID from the top menu.

Then click on the microphone icon that says “TAP TO START” to start recording the music for recognition. 

Pros

  • Musicians can distribute their music and earn royalties
  • Access a full list of podcasts and music online
  • Listen and contribute to your favorite music
  • Find music by singing or playing it on your microphone

Cons

  • Requires additional fees to access most features

Download MusiXmatch

4. Google Assistant | Siri – Free tools for finding music by sound

Google Assistant | Siri tools for finding music by sound
  • Operating System: iOS and Android
  • Pricing: Free
  • Developer: Google | Apple

Google Assistant is a virtual assistant software by Google designed to help you engage with Google. It can automate most home items, helping you find and control items faster and with ease. 

Siri is an alternative virtual assistant software by Apple. It works similarly to Google Assistant and performs the most common tasks such as making calls, sending texts, and suggesting directions. 

You can activate both Siri and Google Assistant to find popular songs for you by humming or singing to them. You can also record a sound and play it for them to scan. 

Siri also integrates well with Shazam to find songs that Siri might not be familiar with. It’ll show you the song via the app, and you can play or view it on your Shazam app. 

Pros

  • Recorngizes most songs on the internet
  • Integrates with most apps like Spotify and Shazam
  • They come freely integrated into Android or iOS phones
  • You can buy hardware to speak to in your homes

Cons

  • They have limited features compared to premium options

Download Google Assistant | Download Siri

5. Music Identifier – Best iOS tool for finding music by sound

Music Identifier iOS tool for finding music by sound
  • Operating System: iOS
  • Pricing: Freemium
  • Developer: Rounding Squares BV

Music Identifier is an iOS app designed to help you recognize songs on your phone, and get information about the album, artist, cover, and other information you may require. 

Although it doesn’t work offline, it has interesting features you need if you often listen to music via your phone. The app allows you to import videos from your gallery and identify the song name. 

You don’t need to note down all the songs you searched for as it’ll keep a record of all the songs you searched so you can find them faster another time. The app starts identifying immediately after you open it, making it handy if you’re in public. 

Pros

  • Recognize music from videos on your phone
  • Autorecognition feature to identify music immediately
  • Identify music from a video segment 
  • Keep track of the online search list 

Cons

  • The app only works for iPhones 

Download Music Identifier

6. AudioTag – Search for songs in a database of over 2 million tracks

AudioTag Search for songs by sound
  • Operating System: Web-based
  • Pricing: Free
  • Developer: audiotag.info

Although AudioTag’s database only has nearly 2 million tracks which is nowhere comparable with Gracenote’s database that is used by musiXmatch,

AudioTag has successfully helped to recognize 1.5 million queries so far. It also offers a slightly different method of recognizing music which is either through uploading a full or short fragment of audio or specifying the URL to the audio file in WAV, MP3, OGG, FLAC, FLV, AMR, MP4, and many more.

AudioTag offers a great alternative to music recognition for people who do not have permission to install third-party apps like Shazam and musiXmatch, and also if they do not have a microphone.

Pros

  • Upload a file to recognize audio
  • Find old songs lost back in time
  • Recognize music from a URL link
  • Discover what other users searched for

Cons

  • It runs Ads 

Visit AudioTag

7. WatZatSong – Best for recognizing low-quality sound 

watzatsong recognizing low-quality sound 
  • Operating System: iOS, Android, WatchOS, MacOS, Google Chrome, and Wear OS
  • Pricing: Freemium
  • Developer: London-based Shazam Entertainment

If none of the apps or online services above managed to help you recognize an unknown song probably due to the low quality of the recorded music, your last option would be to record or upload the sample music and let the community of WatZatSong help you identify it.

Before you can post a sample, you must first sign up for a free account that does not require verification through email. After signing up and logging in, click on the POST A SAMPLE button located at the top of the website.

You’ll be given a choice of whether to record the sample using your microphone or upload the music file. Select the genre that you think the music belongs to and also the language. Enter any comments you have about the music and click the Confirm button.

Pros

  • Find a catalog of old and forgotten songs
  • Record a sample and post it to identify it
  • Post the song in a community to help you identify it
  • You don’t need to install any software

Cons

  • The website may look clunky 

Visit WatZatSong

Conclusion: Finding music by sound

Found an interesting song on TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram videos? You can use the above-mentioned tools to find the song you love. Try all tools to find out, which one is most suitable for you. 

What do you think about the above-mentioned tools? Do you have favorite suggestions you’d like us to include? Share your thoughts in the comment section below. 

32 Comments - Write a Comment

  1. L. Civali 3 years ago
    • Jay Weller 2 years ago
  2. JackN 3 years ago
    • Irene737 3 years ago
  3. ConcernedMusicfan 4 years ago
    • ConcernedMusicfan 4 years ago
  4. Geoffrey 7 years ago
  5. Sonic Wonder 7 years ago
    • PlayingInMyBrain 3 years ago
  6. Greg 7 years ago
    • HAL9000 7 years ago
      • PlayingInMyBrain 3 years ago
    • John 7 years ago
      • Sonic Wonder 7 years ago
    • qtro 5 years ago
  7. enjang 7 years ago
  8. my name is k 8 years ago
  9. Rajon 8 years ago
  10. Minasti_7 8 years ago
  11. Cal 9 years ago
  12. Siavash 9 years ago
  13. Chris 9 years ago
  14. m-oomar 15 years ago
  15. Meshal 15 years ago
  16. sunkumarspace 15 years ago
  17. Justin Guarini 15 years ago
  18. tartooob 15 years ago
  19. ha14 15 years ago
  20. billy13 15 years ago
  21. Eugene 15 years ago
  22. dianne 15 years ago
  23. Adrian Winata 15 years ago

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Note: Your comment is subject to approval. Read our Terms of Use. If you are seeking additional information on this article, please contact us directly.