Music gives the universe a soul, gives flight to our imagination, and gives wings to our minds. Music makes us express ourselves, and when we hear sounds that we love, it triggers a part of our brains. Songs are used to bring music to life, and everyone in the world has a favourite song. There are songs for every emotion we feel, and lyrics and beats make us connect better to the song. Songs can in the twinkle of an eye, change our mood and help us fight depression.
The 21st century has increased the number of songs that people can access. The internet has granted us millions of songs, and with only a click, we can get the ones we want. There are also thousands of websites and application that provide songs for users to download. But what do you do if you do not know the name, lyrics or artist of a song you just heard in passing and would like to have?
Songs that have a good melody, harmony, lyrics or beat would leave you asking ‘what song is this?’. How about times when you heard a song and kept on humming it but could not seem to find what song it was? These are frustrating situations especially if you have connected with the song or its lyrics. Sadly, browsing through the internet will take ages for you to find the song that you need. If it is not a popular song, the problem of finding its details is even compounded. What then can you do?
Is There An App I Can Use To Identify Songs?
If you find yourself frantically searching for the details of a song, you probably would have asked yourself this question as well. There are a lot of websites that claim to be able to recognise a song, but you cannot get the best services from them. This is because most of these websites only recognise popular songs, and you probably would not be looking for the details of a popular song. The answer is yes. There are song recognition apps.
There many apps that identify songs on the internet. Most of such song detection apps work the same way and have many similarities. However, some other music detection apps have distinct features that make them stand out from their competitors. You must do good research before selecting an app to find your songs for you.
Things To Consider When Selecting A Song Detector App
Not all apps that tell you the name of the song will provide you with the services that you need. That is why you need to be aware of the services that each one offers. Some things to consider when selecting these apps are;
- The interface: A song recognition app should have a user-friendly interface. It should be easy to use and navigate.
- Speed of search result: No one wants to wait for long before they get the search result or name of a song. Place priority on apps that are quick to find your songs.
- Accessibility with/without internet connection: There are very few song recognition apps that can find the name of a song without an internet connection. If you find one, be sure to consider it before those apps which can only recognise songs when online.
- Cost of the app: Good song recognition apps are usually costly. Also, look at the cost of the song detection app you want to select and weigh it against others.
- Other services and features: Apps that can provide you with additional services should top your list of song-recognition-apps to get.
- The range of songs that can be detected.
How Song Recognition Apps Work
The results you get from a song recognition app are amazing, but it is fascinating to know how the results came about. It is also amazing how song recognition apps can identify obscure songs even when there is background noise. But different song detection apps work on different technologies. However, the necessary procedures that these apps use to find songs are;
- Gathering the audio sample being played: The first step in the process of identifying a song is to get the song through the input ports of the device. Usually, this input device is the in-built microphone of the computer or smartphone. If the song is playing in the background, the app should pick up the song waves easily. But if it is a song that you have been humming, then you can sing it close to the microphone port. The closer the song is to the input port, the better the sound waves identified by the app.
- Matching the audio sample with any song in the database: After gathering the song sample, the app tries to match it with any song already in its database. Most apps have a database of songs that is constantly being updated. After the user records the song for a short time, say 10 seconds, an audio fingerprint is created by the song recognition app. The app then looks through the millions of songs in the database for anyone that matches the audio fingerprint.
- Sending of the Information: If the song recognition app successfully identifies a song, it would display the details of the song on the screen. Many music detecting apps only display the title of the song, but other apps can give the name of the artist, lyrics, among many others.
It is important to note that some features and sophisticated processes may be used for a paid song recognition app unlike in its free version.
What Types Of Songs Can Be Recognised By An App?
The songs that can be recognised by a music recognition app depend on the database of the app. Each app contains an audio fingerprint database that it uses to find the song that you need. If a song is not in the database of the app, then it cannot help you identify it. Most apps that can recognise songs frequently update their databases to register obscure and new songs, so you can be assured that you will find the name of that song you are looking for.
What Devices Are Compatible With Song Recognition Apps?
Almost every song recognition app can be used in every computer and operating system available. If you use an Android, iOS, BlackBerry OS, Apple or Windows operating system, you should not have much trouble using these apps that tell you the name of a song.
The app that identifies songs can work in the background of the computer that it is installed in and find songs that are played close to the computer or phone. This can cause a rapid reduction in battery percentage and life, so you might want to turn it off when not in use.
How To Get Music Recognition Apps On Your Device
Getting a music recognition app on your device or computer is very easy. Just like any other app that you use, they can be downloaded from the app store of your device. However, these music recognition devices may come in two versions; the paid version and the free version. The paid version has a couple of additional cool features.
Other Services That A Music Recognition App Provides
Paid versions of music recognition apps have some extra features that they provide to users. Apart from recognising the song that is being played, most apps that detect songs can provide some other features which include;
- Display of the Lyrics of the song: This is not the exclusive function of a song detection app, but most apps can bring up the lyrics of the song they identify. The app works by accessing the lyrics of the songs from its database. Hence, when the app recognises a song that has been inputted from the microphone port, it displays the lyrics together with the name of the song.
- Display of the name of the musical artist: A song identifier app can also bring up the name of the artist of a particular song. The app usually uses the name as a tag for the song. Therefore, after the recognition process is completed, the name tag, which is the name of the artist, may also be displayed on the screen.
- Allowing you to download the studio version of a song: Just recognising a song is not all that some apps that identify songs do. Some of them also allow you to download the song to your device so that you can listen to it any time.
- Play the video of the song: Some really good song identification apps also allow you to play and download the video of a particular song. If the song does not have a video, this feature will not be available.
- Allowing you to upload a music file: In some other cases, you might have a song that doesn’t have a name or title. Some paid apps will allow you to upload the file and then recognise and display the details to you. In such cases, the app boycotts the microphone inputting stage.
