Shazam is the most popular music recognition app, but there are a lot of good alternatives. In this overview you will find the best iOS apps to quickly recognize songs on your iOS device.
1. Shazam
Shazam is one of the largest apps in the App Store and the most popular song recognition application. Handy if you are at a party at a festival and hear a song, but do not know its name and can save it in Spotify. The app is simple: tap the big blue button and wait while Shazam listens to the music. The application automatically searches for the song and then shows the title, artist name and a nice album cover. You can then open the song in Spotify or share it with your friends.
Spotify is mainly distinguished by the ease of use and the speed with which songs are recognized. Interestingly, Auto Shazam is a feature that ensures that you don’t even have to open the app to look up a song. Turn the option on and Shazam will listen with you in the background, even when you leave the app.
2. SoundHound
Shazam’s biggest competitor is SoundHound. The app works in much the same way, but has a more flashy look than Shazam. Yet here too you press a round button to start listening, where SoundHound works about as fast as Shazam. However, the app functions better when music sounds a bit softer, although the differences are not that great.
What is unique about SoundHound is the fact that you can also hum a song, after which the app looks up which song you mean exactly. So if you have a nice song in your head, but you can no longer remember exactly what it is called, then SoundHound offers a solution.
Another nice feature of SoundHound is ‘My Music Card’. When you allow SoundHound to use your location, you can always see exactly where you were when you looked up a particular song. Extra fun when you discover music with SoundHound during a tour.
3. Musixmatch
The Musixmatch app mainly focuses on looking up lyrics for music, but you can also use it to recognize songs. Open the menu, tap Identify Lyrics and point your iPhone at an audio source. Then Musixmatch searches for the accompanying lyrics and the name of the song.
Other apps from this overview offer a similar function, but Musixmatch is a bit more extensive. For example, it is possible to type a part of a song text, and then discover the name of the song. Musixmatch is therefore a good choice if you regularly remember a piece of lyrics, but have not memorized the corresponding number.
4. MusicID
MusicID is also an excellent app for quickly recognizing songs. The application has a simpler design and looks clearer than, for example, Shazam and SoundHound.
The cool thing about MusicID is that the app shows large album covers when a song has been found, and you can then indicate where and why you looked up this song. In addition, you will immediately see similar artists, which you may also find worthwhile.