SoundHound and Shazam are very popular music discovery mobile apps. However, if you are looking for something similar for desktop, try Midomi.com. It can identify any song from your voice by just humming or singing. Though it is very basic but has large sample collection and works flawlessly.
Shazam for Mac lives in the menu bar, listening to audio in the background; it has no “tag” button, and when it finds a match, it shows a native notification and it adds a song to its popover, allowing you to click it to view the song on Shazam’s website. Apart from that, what I love the most about Shazam is that you can even recognize songs that are playing on your smartphone. Shazam calls it “Pop Up Shazam” and it works on any app. This can be especially useful while browsing Instagram where you discover so many cool background music and songs. Lastly, if you have a low-powered device then.
There’s probably over a hundred million songs in the world and the number is certainly increasing each day. With that number of songs, the chances of you listening to a song that you really like and not knowing the title or the author is pretty high. The old school trick in identifying an unknown song is try to catch one or two sentences of the lyrics and look for it in a search engine such as Google. This method should work most of the time but definitely not for some instrumental genres such as classical, dance, electronic, jazz…
There are apps for smartphone such as SoundHound, TrackID, MusicID and Bing Audio (selected countries only) that make it so much easier to recognize unknown songs by running the app and touching a button to start recording a short clip to perform the music recognition. As for desktop computers, music recognition is also possible through these free software or online services.
1. midomiIf you’ve heard of the popular SoundHound app for smartphones, it actually started off from midomi, a free web based music recognition service. This is why you can find SoundHound being advertised in most parts of midomi’s website and even using their favicon!
Midomi uses flash player to activate the microphone on your computer so that it can capture the music for recognition. All you need to do is click on the button that says “Click and Sing or Hum” followed by clicking the allow button when you are prompted to give camera and microphone access to midomi. You can either sing, hum or even play the music if you’ve managed to record it and midomi will attempt to recognize the song. Fast, no frills and easy to use since there is no need to install any third party application for midomi to work other than Flash Player.
Visit midomi
2. Shazam
Shazam is a very popular music identification app for Android with nearly 2 millions reviews averaging 4.4 out of 5 stars! Fortunately you can also find a desktop version but only available to download for Windows 8.1 through the Windows Store.
It is a no brainer to use Shazam. Run the program, click on the big Shazam icon and it will start spinning to start recognizing the music coming from your microphone. Upon finding a match, Shazam will show the album cover together with links to buy the music.
Download Shazam
3. musiXmatch
The music recognition feature called “Music ID” found in musiXmatch is powered by Gracenote and if you didn’t know, 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 select Music ID from the top menu. Then click on the microphone icon that says “TAP TO START” to start recording the music for recognition.
Download musiXmatch
4. AudioTag
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 in 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 the permission to install third party apps like Shazam and musiXmatch, and also if they do not have a microphone.
Visit AudioTag
5. WatZatSong
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 and you’ll 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.
Visit WatZatSong
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ReplyBetter than Midomi in my opinion! Comes with 2 modes of search
ReplyThank you for this article. Someone else found the song for me on WatZatSong by listening to the recording I made of 1 minute. Very much appreciated.
ReplyI can tell you I finally found and bought one of my “songs” a couple of days ago after not hearing it for 24 years. It played occasionally on the radio. I did not know the author or the title, and I typically listen only to instrumental music, and the only recording was the one playing in my brain.
This particular one was “Short Stories” by Ray Obiedo, with a distinctive bass rhythm in the first half. These trendy tools like SoundHound and Shazam are absolutely worthless for locating instrumental music sans a complete database.
ReplyAnything based on lyrics is redundant to what a Google search provides and of no value.
The real challenge is this:. You don’t know the artist, you don’t know the title, and you CERTAINLY don’t have a recording. All you have is a tune in your head… From something you heard twice on the radio 30 years ago.
Until we get there, these tools are pretty much worthless.
ReplyUntil we get there, these tools and others like them are pretty much the only chance you’ve got. It’s either slim chance or no chance if you don’t try, I’d choose the first option.
ReplyGreg & Halgoo – if it’s only in your head – try downloading MuseScore or Finale… then write it as music…
then try to get that “identified”…
You are right, John. I’ve worked extensively in MuseScore for my own compositions and it’s probably time to do just that… Kudos on that suggestion.
Reply
“From something you heard twice on the radio 30 years ago.”
The average Radio play the same bulls**t over and over and over and over.
So what you need to do think about the genre of the song (to reduce the decade it was originally played at the radio since just because it was made 30 years ago, this doenst mean the song was created at that year) and then look at the top billboard charts and the song will be there, I heard at some research paper that 2 new songs are added to the average radio stations (that play the same stuff over and over) each week so at max you have 104 songs per year and some you will discover few seconds before it start that is not what you want.
nice articel, I once found my song within only 7 second provided, then upload it on WatZatSong, and replied in a 7 minutes for an arabic song artist and title!.
ReplyThank you for providing such links. But they are not what I expected. I wish better. I thought different music have different frequency, so if they compare to the songs on their big song library, It may be nothing. I mean that will be way way simple at all. I am wondering that I hate cross plateform incompatibility these days. even Android phone or iphone sucks. What kind of tech, this is 2017. I hate….
ReplyThank you very much that helped a lot …
ReplyWow thanks to this post I discovered that musixmatch have a feature to indentify songs ♥
Replyfantastic! AudioTag did it for me to figure out one piece of music from the movie Solace: M83 – My Tears Are Becoming A Sea). Thumps up! :-)
ReplyVery useful info….thank you ray….
ReplyGoog article Ray. Do you know if there’s a search engine for very short sound clips?
Replygreat post raymond. you are the best.
Replythanks a lot
Replynice cool information
ReplyNice article I’m thankful that I’ve found it..
ReplyExcellent post, really needed this long time ago
ReplyYap the kind of information I was looking for it especially for karaoke type applications. Thank you again Raymond.
ReplyThanks Ray
ReplyThanks Ray. Very useful and it really works :-)
Replywow this is a nice article Ray. I sometimes find myself unable to download mp3 because I don’t know the title. This is really great for techno songs!
ReplyExcellent!
ReplyLeave a Reply
With so many people streaming on Twitch, I guess you could say it’s one of the most prominent game-streaming platforms. I guess. And with so many streamers using music in the background of their streams, it can be difficult to tell what song is playing. And some songs might not actually be allowed either.
This article reviews the requirements for background music allowed on Twitch for streamers to incorporate into their broadcasts. We will also look at some ways to tell what songs are playing. Let’s start with what methods to find out what songs are playing on Twitch streams.
How to Tell What Song is Playing on Twitch
There are several ways to tell what song is playing in a stream on Twitch. Here are a number of the most common and easy ways to tell what’s playing.
- Browser extensions.
- Smartphone Apps, like Soundhound, Shazam, or Song Identifier.
- Twitch Bot
- Ask someone in chat
When you watch a fresh stream on Twitch, it’s hard not to be swayed by the music playing. And sometimes, you likely want to know what that song that’s playing is. Now, you can always ask in chat, but if it’s a larger channel, with a lot of people adding to chat, it can be hard to get your message answered.
The audio service found at TwitchAudio.com is an accompanying service verified with the Twitch platform. At least, it was until it stopped working. This service is a free service that would listen to the stream and tell you what the song was playing. Unfortunately, when we tried to see how the service worked, it failed to load.
Here are some reliable other ways we tested to tell what song is playing on Twitch.
Methods Using A Browser Extension
AHA Music Extension
If you’re sitting at a computer, and that computer happens to be running Chrome or Edge, there is a handy extension called AHA Music. It’s free and available on the Google Web Store or the Microsoft Edge Add-ons Store.
This method is nice because it will work with more than just Twitch. If you use Chrome or Edge, this free extension can tell you what’s playing in an open browser window.
You could be watching a movie, Twitch, YouTube, Facebook video, or any other browser-based source and if it’s playing in a browser window, you just hit the extension button, and it starts listening.
We found the only issue in testing this extension was a noticeable glitch when it started and stopped ‘listening.’ The glitch occurred in the music playing; it stuttered momentarily. It’s nothing crazy given that it tells you what song is playing. It’s a small trade-off. This glitch occurred in both Chrome as well as on Edge.
Methods Using A Smartphone
Soundhound App
The next method for finding out what song you’re hearing is using your smartphone and an app like Soundhound. Soundhound is a fantastic little app that listens and will tell you what song is playing. There’s just one catch; it can’t work if watching a stream with headphones.
Unless you get creative and hold the headphones over your phone, you’ll have to use speakers to play the stream out loud. The Soundhound app needs to be able to hear the music that’s playing.
A good idea is to get the phone ready with Soundhound before you start watching. When a good song comes on, you can quickly grab your phone and find out what song it is before it is over.
Shazam Background Music Download
Shazam App
Another app that can do the same thing as the Soundhound app is the Shazam app. The Shazam app will do the same thing as the Soundhound app, and sometimes it is done in only a few seconds.
The Shazam app works well and identifies most songs within seconds. Unlike the Soundhound app, the Shazam app seems to run significantly faster. In testing, we found that the Shazam app identified a song in just over 2 seconds.
Similarly, the Soundhound app required two attempts, the first of which was unsuccessful altogether. We used electronic music published within two years for our test, with at least 20 million views on YouTube. This way, it is music that is current, popular, and should be easily recognized by any of these sorts of apps.
Song Identifier App
Song Identifier is another popular app that may have spawned from the Twitch Audio site that we found was not working in our preliminary research. Although, to be honest, we couldn’t find any official connection. The Song Identifier app installed fast and was one button press kind of easy to use.
Out of these apps, we found all were equally easy to use with Shazam and Song Identifier being the fastest of the three. The Song Identifier app worked in the same manner as the Shazam app and simultaneously determined a song, just over 2 seconds.
Are There Bots That Can Tell You What Songs are Playing?
With Twitch being so incredibly massive with millions of streamers and millions of viewers worldwide, thousands and thousands of developers are constantly churning up new and exciting things, one of which are bots that can perform various virtual tasks on our behalf.
One of the bot types that is common is the chatbot. Chatbots can respond to comments and work by having triggers that respond to a command such as !song. It is a straightforward system.
The same code that the apps and extensions use to listen to music and then identify it can be used or triggered by a bot action. It just takes some smart coding to connect the dots.
Shazam Free Download
Twitch Bots – Song Identifiers
Twitch-music-id on GitHub is a bot-in-progress that is on GitHub. The bot is a chatbot that listens and identifies the songs playing in the stream.
The bot has a fairly decent success rate. That is, if we are comparing the bots grade to grade school student grades. Compared to apps like Shazam or even Soundhound, the success rate is unfortunately not even comparable.
Unfortunately, there are no currently active and working bots for Twitch that are approved and work well to identify music playing. The fastest and most straightforward methods are using browser extensions or an app on a smartphone.
However, if you have a playlist on your channel, bots like Nightbot can identify what song is currently being played since it is already loaded on your playlist. But, this will be up to the streamer to set up and provide a command for this.
Can You Play Any Song on Twitch?
For streamers, there are some straightforward rules when it comes to what you can play on Twitch.
A streamer may only play songs that they own the rights to or have a license for playing the song on the Twitch platform. When playing songs, the same rules apply for the song as do for any original work: Playing without permission infringes on the owner’s rights to the material.
If you are streaming and looking for some free background music to include in your streams, there are several free music services where one can get free music or close to free music to add in your stream.
For more information regarding where to find copyright free music on Twitch go to this article here.
What if I Play a Copyrighted Song?
Twitch is one of those cool platforms that get it. Sometimes, a song or clip of a song sneaks its way into the background. They won’t outright ban you, so you don’t have to rush out and start a whole new channel. But, if you repeatedly play copyrighted content, you’ll build up strikes. After so many strikes, you’re out, and that means out of Twitch.
As I am sure you have seen this year in 2020, there have been several DMCA claims or threats because streamers were playing others music without permission. So streamers were having to go back and delete tons of videos, vods and clips because they had music on them that the streamers did not have the rights to.
The best rule is to make sure you never play the music that you don’t have the right to use. There are several places where you can get music that is free to use. Several paid sites can get all kinds of great music to use in backgrounds for streams, videos, and more.
One could quite quickly build up a small reel of tracks to use as a background for videos between free sites and paid sites. Depending on what kind of video or stream one is doing, that is. Many streams do not have music because the streamers are talking, so to many, this isn’t an issue. But if some nice background ambiance is in your stream, it could make your stream stand out.
What Can We Conclude about Music Identification in Twitch Streams?
Two techniques stand out as very useful after testing multiple methods to determine songs playing in a stream in Twitch. First, using a browser extension is the easiest way if watching the stream on a desktop or laptop computer.
Download Shazam Music App
The extensions load fast and also work with multiple platforms, from Twitch to YouTube to Facebook. The downside to the browser extension music identification is the glitch in the stream’s play when the extension starts and stops to ‘listen.’
The fastest and by far, the easiest method is to have an app on a smartphone such as Shazam or Music Identifier. These apps work incredibly fast to determine a song playing within seconds. The downside is possible data charges if you aren’t operating the smartphone on a wi-fi system.
Also, if the smartphone cannot hear the streaming audio, then there can be an issue. If one is watching the stream on their smartphone, it will be challenging to get the app to listen without closing the app playing the stream. In this case, the two phones would be convenient. Or just message the streamer and ask them if you really must know what track that was.
There is some pretty poppin music on Twitch so if you are looking for a few good songs to add to your collection then definitely use some of the techniques that we talked about above. Happy stream dreams my friends.
Recommended Equipment and Last Words
If you are interested in streaming, or if you already stream and are looking to upgrade your setup, then you have to check out some of the streaming equipment that I recommend below:
- Best Webcam:CLICK HERE
- Best Mic:CLICK HERE
- Best Headphones:CLICK HERE
- Best Lighting:CLICK HERE
- Best Capture Card: CLICK HERE
- Stream Deck:CLICK HERE
- Cam Link:CLICK HERE
- Best Boom Arm:CLICK HERE
- Best Green Screen:CLICK HERE
- Best Overlays:CLICK HERE
- Best Streaming Software:CLICK HERE
Shazam A Song Online
Also, if you are feeling generous, I would really appreciate it if you followed my Twitch channel, you can do so by clicking here. I am trying to grow so that way I can better help you all. I really appreciate you all!
If you watch Twitch you will hear some pretty cool songs and so I suggest finding a way that helps you identify some of the dope songs that are bound to end up on streams.