How many times have you encountered a situation where you heard a great song on the radio or in a YouTube video, but you didn’t know who sings it, and no one in the comments could tell you the name of it?
In such a situation, various music recognition programs such as Tunatic, AudioTag, Shazam and Midomi will help you. In this article, we will review their main features, test them and point out the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Shazam
Shazam — the most popular service that has an application for iPhone And Android, as well as a desktop client for a Windows computer. In the application settings, you can configure Shazam so that every time you launch the application, a search is immediately launched. This is quite convenient.
Shazam just listen to a fragment for a few seconds and you will have access to all the necessary information about the track, including the album cover, as well as the ability to buy the work on Amazon. In addition, you can share this composition with your friends on social networks, watch the video, get acquainted with the artist's tours, look at his discography. The application saves all your search history.
The application is installed completely free of charge. The application has a stylish design with good functionality. Of course, the application requires the Internet to work. In order to start the definition, just press one button, after which the inscription "Listening" will appear and in a few seconds the name of the song will appear. The service was tested on an Android smartphone, but this does not matter. The program identified all the songs offered to it.
Google Assistant & Siri
There is no need to install a separate app, these two digital assistants do the job perfectly. Just call up the voice assistant using the Home button and say something like “What song is playing now?” The recognition will start immediately.
We tried both Siri and Google Assistant to identify some popular tracks. We were pleased with the results. So if you don't want to install a separate app, this is a good option.
SoundHound
SoundHound is Shazam's biggest competitor, so it's hard to say exactly which one is better. SoundHound lets you use voice control and just say, "OK, Hound. What's this song?" and the app will immediately recognize the song you're looking for. Or you can search for a song based on the lyrics you've memorized.
You can also tap the orange button to identify music and see lyrics in real time, find a music video and share it on social media. It can even answer questions like “What’s Taylor Swift’s latest song?” All without using your hands.
The application is available on Android And iOS.
Midomi
Midomi — an online music recognition service that does not require file upload. Just press one button and the program will start listening to the track you need to find. Recording a fragment is very fast — it takes less than 10 seconds to identify the artist. Before recording, the application asks for permission to access your microphone.
The search results will show the title of the work, the artist's name and the album cover. You will also be offered to find a clip or buy an mp3 file. You will be able to watch all the songs from this album, listen to short 30-second excerpts to get acquainted with the possibility of buying the compositions you like.
AudioTag
AudioTag — to start searching, just go to the site and upload a file with the required fragment or provide a link to it. The site developers recommend uploading tracks 15–45 seconds long, but no one forbids you from sending the entire song.
Supported formats include MP3, WAV, OGG. At the top of the site there is a button to switch to Russian. If the quality of the excerpt is low and the robot cannot clearly determine the name, it will offer several options.
The analysis takes place within 20-30 seconds. Unfortunately, if you heard music on the radio, you won't be able to find it right away. Therefore, you need to have time to record a fragment. The developers claim that the robot will be able to cope even with poor-quality recordings.
As a result of testing, the AudioTag service was able to find all five tracks. It easily handled both last year's compositions and songs from ten years ago. The only drawback is the need to additionally record a fragment of the song and upload it to the site.
Tunatic
Tunatic is a free desktop application. It can be installed under Windows and Mac OS operating systems. After a simple installation, a program window appears with the inscription "Tunatic ready. Click to identify song". It is extremely easy to work with - just click the white button with the image of a magnifying glass during track playback. After connecting to the server, the inscription "Identifying song. Please wait" will appear - this is the program collecting and sending data to the server to search for matches in the database. If your microphone does not work or the music is not heard, the inscription "Signal too weak. Check your microphone" will appear. If the song is identified, the artist's name and its title will appear.
The test results are as follows: out of 5 foreign songs, only 3 were found. Searching for each track takes about 45 seconds. I can't say whether this is a pattern or a coincidence, but tracks older than 2010 were not identified.
Conclusions
To sum up our review, I would like to give first place to Shazam for its almost instant recognition, as well as a wide range of solutions for both desktop computers and almost any mobile device. Second place goes to Midomi, which also quickly and accurately found the suggested tracks, and, in addition, can analyze recordings "on the fly" without the need to download files. Third place goes to AudioTag for identifying all excerpts, but with the ability to search only for files saved on the computer. Fourth place goes to Tunatic, because it could not handle all the works suggested to it.