Know the melody of the song, but don’t remember the lyrics? I usually hear a song on the radio or in a cafe, and if I can’t identify the artist, I just Google a few words while they’re fresh in my mind. A few months ago I wrote about how to find the title or title of a song from the lyrics, but this is only useful if you know the lyrics.
Also, there are many songs without words, so in such cases, you definitely need to identify the song by the melody or sound. Fortunately, there are many ways to easily identify songs using online tools, desktop apps and smartphone apps. In this article, I will list various methods that you can use to tag a song.
Learn songs online
If you are sitting at a computer, the easiest way to identify a song is to use many free online services. They’ve gotten pretty advanced over the years and even allow you to just hum the melody of a song to identify them.
Midomi
Midomi
Midomi will let you sing or hum a melody to identify the song, so if you like to sing to yourself all the time, this is perfect for you. I’m a terrible singer, so it was quite difficult for the service to determine half of the songs I tried to sing. My wife walked by and sang three songs, and Midomi identified all three. It looks like your singing ability will affect your results.
Luckily, humming a few tunes has given me the best results, so if your singing doesn’t work, try humming. The accuracy isn’t all that great, so keep reading if you can’t identify your song with Midomi
AudioTag
Audio recording
Midomi is the only online tool I have found that allows me to sing or hum songs. Everything else is either a smartphone app or desktop software. Another interesting site I found was AudioTag
Here you can simply download an excerpt from a song and the program will try to compare it to an online database. If you hear a song and can record part of it using your phone, you can try your luck by uploading it to AudioTag This can also be useful if you have MP3 files that do not contain artist or song information and need to tag them correctly.
In addition to these auto-tagged sites, there are several sites that help identify music. Usually, you download a snippet of your singing, buzzing, or music, and people on the internet will try to help you identify it.
NameMyTune
The name is MyTune
NameMyTune is a very simple site with only two options: record yourself or listen to other people’s recordings to determine their melody. Just click “Find Song Title” and allow access to the microphone. Hit the record button and start singing! Select a genre of music and approximate age, then enter your email address. Now you just have to wait and hopefully someone can figure this out.
WatZatSong
Watzat song
WatZatSong has a terrible name, but it does the same thing as NameMyTune I like NameMyTune better because it doesn’t require you to register, as WatZatSong does. Once you’ve done that, just record your sound sample and relax while someone finds out what crazy music you are listening to!
Identify songs using smartphone applications
Your possibilities are greatly enhanced if you can use your smartphone to identify songs. You’ve probably heard of several apps before due to their popularity.
Shazam
Shazam
Shazam is one of the most popular tools for identifying music and other types of media. Over the years, the app has gotten more and more features and is great for the avid music listener. One of the best features is the auto background listening feature that can be turned on, which will continuously detect music, movies and TV shows without having to open the app.
It does a great job of not killing the battery and it really works. If you never want to miss a song that you hear in your day to day life, then Shazam is simply great. It also has a number of other features, such as live lyrics and the ability to watch video clips of songs from YouTube.
SoundHound
SoundHound
SoundHound is another app for all smartphone platforms that is very similar to Shazam, but also has the added ability to listen to you sing or hum.
I have not been able to find any other smartphone app that can listen to you sing or hum, so this is your only choice if you want to do that. SoundHound also has live lyrics and other common social music features.
Identifying songs with PC software
Identify songs using a desktop program
When it comes to desktop software, there are several options, but not all. Plus, if you don’t have a smartphone and don’t use the Internet much, PC software is likely your last choice.
Audiggle
Odigel
Audiggle is a simple little desktop application that will listen to a song from your microphone and try to identify it. On first launch, you will be prompted to select a login to record, and then you will need to login. You can register directly from the program interface and then log in.
Once you are logged in, you can start using the program to identify songs. Overall, he did a decent job defining the songs, but nothing special. It would be nice if they only had the web version of the software that the site says they are working on, but this may never happen.
Tunatic
Twontec
Tunatic is another free program, but it’s very old. According to the website, it still claims to be designed for Windows 2000 and Windows XP! Oh! Unfortunately, there really are no other desktop music recognition apps. As I mentioned earlier, everything is mostly online or in a smartphone app.
After installing it, a small window appears that appears to be floating on the desktop. Just start playing your song and then hit the little search button to find the song. The software takes a little time but seems to work. This is not to say that the results were very good. I tried to find some new songs and Tunatic came back with some crazy results that I had never heard of. I think it’s so old it’s probably only suitable for pre-2002 songs.
As you can see, the best options are available in smartphone apps. They seem to be the most reliable and up to date in terms of the song database. Some websites are pretty good too, but I’ve had better luck with phone apps. If you use anything else to identify music, please let us know in the comments. Enjoy!
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