Have you ever wondered what that beautiful song is playing in a bar or club? Music recognition apps can give you the answer to the burning question, “Which song is this?” by helping you track down the names and artists of all the songs you’ve heard. These apps work by tapping the microphone of an iPhone or Android device before logging into the cloud to scan databases of millions of songs and identify a specific song.
Check out the eight best music recognition apps for Android and iOS
Shazam (Android, iOS):
Shazam (Android, iOS) recognizes music both in active mode (recognizing a song by pressing the app’s Shazam button) and in automatic mode, where Shazam simply listens in the background and automatically recognizes each song. When Shazam recognizes what a song is, it displays information about the song and artist, along with lyrics, a preview, and the option to add the song to Spotify playlists. (iPhone users have the option to open the song in Apple Music.)
Shazam also includes a music recognition engine based on the songs you recognize, and an offline mode where the app listens to everything around you and recognizes the song later when you have an online connection to connect to the Shazam database.
SoundHound (Android, iOS):
SoundHound (Android, iOS) is another great music recognition service with a solid engine that recognizes songs in the background or even through written lyrics. You can even hum the song melody to try and identify the song through SoundHound.
In addition to identifying songs and providing metadata such as album and artist information, SoundHound can also provide live lyrics and provide you with links to the full song on Spotify or YouTube. The history feed keeps track of the songs you’ve identified, while SoundHound provides tracking features based on tag history and most recent rankings. The app is supported by ads, but you can remove them by paying $6.99 for the premium version.
Genius (Android, iOS):
Genius (Android, iOS) has a busier home screen than its intended competitors, but this app can also quickly identify which song it is. Hit the Identify button and Genius will do its best to display the song name, album, artist and lyrics information. You also get information about YouTube videos and other songs from the same album.
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In addition to identifying songs, Genius offers a news feed and music-related articles and videos with the latest music news, interviews and features. The app’s all-in-one approach may not suit someone just trying to figure out what song is playing, but music lovers looking to expand may find the Genius add-on a good addition.
Musix Match lyrics:
Musix Match (Android, iOS) is more about matching the lyrics of live songs to the music around you or playing on your phone, but it also recognizes what song is playing around you. MusixMatch has a built-in media player and floating lyrics module, but users can also tap an ID card to get a song’s Musix Match ID, and view and save lyrics to a history feed for future reference. A premium subscription of $2.99 per month removes ads and allows you to download lyrics for offline use. Other additional features of the premium version of Musix Match include a party mode and unlimited lyrics translations.
Music ID (Android, iOS):
MusicID (Android, iOS) has a nice, thin home screen with a listen button and a feed of songs you’ve identified before. Press the play button and hold the phone towards the music – the app selects a song with album art, artist links and a note box for each song. Fast and effortless, MusicID is an option worth considering if none of the well-known music recognition apps work for you.
Google (Android, iOS) or Siri (iOS):
There is also another option to consider, and it may even be already on your phone. Both Google (Android, iOS) and Siri (iOS, built-in) have music recognition in their pocket of tricks, with quick voice commands to help you identify the song that’s playing.
