Best Apps to Identify Song Name – Reverse Song Search

Do you have those times that you hear a song, you tap your fingers or bang your head to the rhythm but the song ends; And you don’t know what the title is? You can’t just simply search on Google a melody (trust me I’ve tried). So how do you identify song name? Well, there are apps that can do a reverse song search for you to help you find out.

A reverse song search would basically listen to what you’re listening to. Whether it’s in your car radio, or at your favorite restaurant. Basically, these apps detect and identify song names quickly and accurately. These apps try to sample from the music that is playing in the background and cross-reference it with a database of known songs.

In any case, here’s a list of the best Apps to Identify Song Name.

Google Assistant

If you have an Android phone then look no further. Your Android phone most likely has the reverse song search feature built in, and you can access it by going to Google Assistance. It’s the app that pulls up whenever you say “Okay Google” or “Hey Google”. Just make sure that you’re connected to the internet, either by mobile data or by WiFi connection.

Once you’ve pulled up the app, identifying the song that’s playing in the background can be done with just a voice command. The command that you need to say is simply, “What song is this?”. Google Assistant will then start to scan the song for a few seconds, check the beats and attempting to identify the lyrics.

When you do a song search, Google Assistance does the search very accurately, and it was able to pull up songs for me that are both in English and in Korean. It didn’t work when I tried searching for Filipino songs. Maybe it would work for the popular songs in your language. I haven’t tried other languages other than those three though.

Great, Google Assistant was able to find the song and even showed the lyrics. The best part is it’s triggered by voice command so if you have a song that you really want to identify, just take your phone out.

Shazam

Shazam was really simple to use and did the job well. With just one button to identify song name, you can’t go wrong with using this app if you want to do a reverse song search. One of the features that I really loved while using Shazam is Auto-Shazam which allows you to continuously identify the song that is playing right now.

I tried using the simple Shazam, and it was able to identify the song very quickly. What I liked is that it offers to open the song in Spotify. It will also offer to open it in Google Music and the Apple Music store, depending on what your preferences are. Aside from information about the song, you can also check lyrics, look for a music video, and even research about the artist of the song.

You can download Shazam by clicking here.

MusixMatch

Another app that you can use to do a reverse song search is MusixMatch. It’s very easy to use and has a long list of compatible apps. It can link to Spotify, Google Music, YouTube and a lot more apps. The best part about MusixMatch? It can show you the lyrics of the song and synchronize with the song. Meaning to say, whatever lyrics are being said are also shown to you in real time.

There are a few caveats before you can begin using the app. You first need to allow MusixMatch to show notifications. Once you get the screen above, you just need to click on the buttons to provide permission to the app. After you’re done with providing permission, you would need to sign up; either by linking your Facebook account or by creating one with them. And after signing up, you’re still asked to link your Spotify account.Despite those issues with using MusixMatch, its identify song name feature is definitely something amazing. Just simply let it listen to the song that you have in the background…

And it finds it almost instantly. It even shows you the lyrics so you can sing along.

Download MusixMatch by clicking here.

SoundHound

A feature that is lacking with the other apps on this list is that you have to listen to the real song. You can’t hum the song you want to identify. But not with SoundHound. This app not only does a reverse song search, it even has a “hum to identify song name” feature. It’s also very simple to use with just one button to press to start listening.

It also has very pretty UI to keep you entertained while it tries to identify the song. What I really liked with using SoundHound is that it doesn’t bother you that much with the ads. Though it still has ads, they’re not as prominent as the other apps listed here.

When it identifies the song, it will offer you the same things as the other apps, such as open in Spotify. It can even open the song on YouTube so you don’t have to manually do it. And if you ever forget the song that you just identified, don’t worry because there’s a history feature.

Download SoundHound by clicking here.

In Brief

You’ve got plenty of options if you want to do a reverse song search. Though the apps listed here do have their individual pros and cons, one thing is for sure: identify song name features have really advanced. Way back in the early 2000s, if you want to find out what a song’s name is, you had to wait for the DJs on the radio to tell you. Or if you were watching on MTV, you needed to wait for the title at the start and the end. How I wish these apps were available back then.

Did this list help you? Let me know in the comments!