good alternative apps to shazam for music recognition
5 Good Alternative Apps to Shazam for Music Recognition
Are you the kind of person who loves to instantly know everything about the song being played, but need a refreshing change from Shazam? Buzzle provides a list of amazing alternative apps for music recognition.
A Little About Shazam...
The Top 5 Alternatives to Shazam
1. SoundHound
♦ Earlier known as Midomi, SoundHound is a music recognition app available for literally every mobile platform, right from iOS and Android to Windows Mobile and BlackBerry OS. It is free to download if you do not mind banner advertisements, or else you can download the premium variant of the app, which costs USD 6.99, where you would not be bothered by any ads.
♦ Unlike Shazam, which uses acoustic fingerprinting, SoundHound uses QbH (Query by Humming), a completely different algorithm altogether, that allows even speech, singing, and even humming to be recognized. You can even use it as a fundamental music search engine by typing in a song's title or lyrics to get results.
♦ The app returns not just the song's title, but also lyrics and album information, links to YouTube videos, the download page on iTunes, and ringtones if available. A feature known as LiveLyrics lets you play songs from your phone, and lyrics will be provided in real-time, and one can even jump to that point of the song where the lyrics that he or she double-taps on, are being sung.
♦ SoundHound is extremely popular because of its reputation when it comes to speed, accuracy, and flexibility, its range of features (it even lets you synchronize with your iTunes library, or hear the song immediately on one of many platforms like Pandora, Spotify, and the like), and as of 2014, the app has been downloaded by more than 200 million users.
![]()
![]()
2. Sound Search for Google Play
♦ If you find too many features overwhelming, with each competing app trying to outdo the other and digressing way too much from the basic premise of song recognition, Sound Search for Google Play is recommended for you.
♦ The database that songs are matched with, is the music library of Google Play, and though it is extensive, it is limited to this. It can be downloaded for free from Google Play, and works with devices running Android 4.0 or higher.
♦ It is less of an app, and more of a widget that can be accessed from the Home Screen itself. It can even be accessed from the Lock Screen in devices running Android 4.2 and higher. The app works in the same way as Shazam; the mobile phone needs to be brought in the vicinity of the sound, and it will recognize the song.
♦ The app lets you directly buy the song from Google Play, and add it to your Play Music playlist.
♦ Although minimalistic in design, this app has a reputation for very good speed as well as accuracy.
![]()
3. musiXmatch
♦ Although musiXmatch is primarily marketed as the largest lyrics catalog in the world, after it was equipped with Gracenote's sound recognition technology, MusicID (which also powers Sony's copyrighted TrackID software, and employs the acoustic fingerprinting algorithm), it takes song recognition to a whole new level.
♦ Not only can songs be identified with the help of this app, but thanks to its own sprawling database of lyrics, it also provides lyrics for every song in real-time so that one can sing along. It also provides lyrics for a video being played on your device, or a song you are listening to on Spotify.
♦ This app is not just compatible with the various mobile environment, but is also available for every possible platform such as PCs, tablet devices, Google Glass, and other wearable devices.
♦ musiXmatch with MusicID quickly gained popularity because it was released around the time when Shazam used to charge users exorbitantly for song identification. Moreover, Gracenote's song recognition techniques are both speedy as well as accurate (as they have tie-ups with all major entertainment companies), and power many other noteworthy interactive systems. Most importantly, this app is free to download and hence is favored by many users.
![]()
4. TrackID
♦ A decade ago, when Shazam was still just a call-in service, Sony Ericsson mobile handsets came with a built-in app, called TrackID, that allowed you to do precisely what the celebrated music recognition apps of the day can; recognize a song that is playing around you, by recording a sample, and sending it over the internet, and searching for matches in a database (Gracenote's MusicID in this case).
♦ This service was free, except internet data usage charges of course, and the application could not be "downloaded" (as this was before the era of smartphones and online application stores). It was a privilege exclusive to Sony Ericsson phones.
♦ TrackID was incorporated by Sony later on even in their BRAVIA HD TVs, and of course, it came as a proprietary app with their Xperia mobile phone series.
♦ The app is now also available for all Android devices on the Play Store, and allows users to identify music, purchase the song, or take a look at what songs other users are trying to track down currently.
![]()
5. MusicID with Lyrics
♦ Developed by Gravity Mobile Inc., this app was earlier a paid app on both Google Play as well as the App Store, but is now free to download.
♦ Like quintessential music recognition apps, it ticks off all the boxes; identifying songs quickly and accurately, links to YouTube videos, the ability to share what you have identified on Facebook and Twitter, or by email, the ability to save a history of songs identified, Similar Songs (a feature that suggests songs you would like based on what you have requested to identify), lyric snippets, song previews, and links to places from where the song can be purchased.
♦ In the face of Shazam and its shenanigans, MusicID with Lyrics emerged as a refreshing alternative, and since the release of its first version, it has evolved to a level that it can stand up to any major music recognition software and give it stiff competition.
![]()
![]()