4 Great Shazam Alternatives for Finding Song Names

Have you ever heard a song on the radio, liked the sound of it but couldn’t quite make out who was singing it or the name of the song?

Well, if you have then Shazam is the answer to all your prayers, as it’s an app that only needs to listen to a song for a few seconds before letting you know all the details about said song.

Well, in theory anyway. There are unfortunately occasions where Shazam stops working and provides users with incorrect information. If you want to try something new then you’re in the right place.

In this article, we are going to look at the best Shazam alternatives out there and provide you with you all the key details about each one to help you make an informed decision about which one to download. Let’s get started.

Apps like Shazam – The top three

SoundHound

SoundHound is the main competitor to Shazam and one that you’ve likely heard of if you’re a big music fan.

The app is available on both android and iOS devices and is downloaded by users who want to know what certain songs are, just like with Shazam. On top of that, it can also generally be used a platform to play all of your favourite music.

The best thing about SoundHound is the fact that you can use the app completely hands free to identify music.

The app uses similar artificial voice intelligence software to Amazon (Alexa) and Apple (Siri), in order to provide this functionality.

The end result is superb, with users simply having to talk into an app when a song is playing and ask it what the song is.

SoundHound will then reply letting you know the song, the artist and other relevant information about the track.

Unsurprisingly, the app is really easy to use. There wouldn’t be much point having a hands free app if the developers had made it complex.

Once the app is downloaded on to your device, users just need to say the word ‘hey SoundHound’, followed by their music-related question.

Typically, users will be asking ‘what song is this?’, however you can also simply ask the app to play certain songs and they will happily oblige, either directly linking you off to iTunes or Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube.

One really cool feature on SoundHound is the fact that you don’t even need a song to be playing in the background for the app to identify a song.

Users can simply hum the general tune of the song or sing certain lyrics and the app will find the answer for you. This can also be done hands-free using the same method explained above.

For those users who don’t want to use the hands free model, you can click a button like you would do on Shazam to identify a song. So, if you’re looking for music recognition apps that can identify your favourite songs, consider Soundhound.

Genius

Genius is another worthy competitor to Shazam and can help users identify songs in an instant.

The app aims to go one step further though, and not only provide users with basic information relating to the song such as the name of the track and the artist, but also provides them with the full lyrics to said song in addition to more detailed information relating to it.

Using the Genius app to identify music is easy enough, and follows a similar structure to Shazam and many other apps of the same ilk.

Users need to simply tap the button on the home screen, allow the app to listen to the song for a few seconds, and then wait for it to bring up the song title and artist.

The button on Genius is slightly more hidden than on Shazam and other apps, with the icon being located on the upper left hand side of the home screen.

From there, you can take a deep dive into the song, learning more about the meaning behind the lyrics and why it was written.

If there are certain lines that you are most interested in then you can highlight them to bring up verified annotations which explain what the lyric means.

Another cool feature of the Genius music app is the video section. This is where verified artists talk in depth about their songs and what they mean.

It means so much more coming from the musician themselves and allows music fanatics to get to know their favourite artists in a deeper way.

All in all, Genius is not only one of the best music recognition apps but the go-to place when you want to find music track lyrics, read artist biographies or even discover new music.

MusixMatch

Since partnering with Spotify a few years ago, Musixmatch has further cemented itself as one of the best places for music discovery.

The app has a large community of music enthusiasts that work to help keep the music data of Musixmatch ahead of the competition. If there’s a change or update in a song, you’ll be sure to find it here.

Not only does the app have all of your favourite song lyrics, but it also makes it extremely easy to translate them into a different language. If you want to find similar songs, Musixmatch is great for that too.

The app is much more than a music recognition tool as it offers music artists a unique way to upload and distribute songs via their Pro platform. But, it works well as an alternative to Shazam too.

MusicID

The final Shazam alternative that is worth looking at is MusicID. The app boasts rapid identification times, and after looking at each one with the same song, MusicID came out as the quickest.

It doesn’t provide much more than the basics, unlike the other two apps we’ve discussed, but in terms of music identification it does the job perfectly.

To use the identification tool on the app, users simply have to allow access to your phone’s microphone and then select the microphone icon.

Once the music starts playing, MusicID will quickly identify the song and let you know the song title and the artist. It will also bring up album artwork relating to the track in question, a nice touch for those who have an appreciation for album covers.

One handy feature that MusicID does possess is the notes feature. This allows users to make a note of anything relating to each identified song, including why they wanted to find out who sung a certain song or where they were when they first heard it.

They say that music can take you back to certain places or times in your life, and with this feature you can remember these places and times more vividly.

If you want a music recognition app that works well to recognize music playing, check out MusicID.

Conclusion

To conclude, Shazam certainly isn’t alone on the app store when it comes to apps that can identify music quickly and accurately.

The apps we’ve discussed today are all competent at doing just that and also come with an abundance of other features to enhance the user experience. Check them out and see what you think.