How to Find a Song You Know Nothing About

Using Your Phone

Use Shazam or MusicID. These are popular apps that analyze sounds and identify songs from their database of recordings. If you've got Shazam on your phone and hear a song you can't identify and don't know anything about, activate the app and hold it toward the audio source and wait for a result. You can also use MusicID or Google Assistant to identify songs that are playing in your environment. Shazam can be used on iPhone, Blackberry, Android, and most other mobile devices. It can also be used on iPads and iPod touches. MusicID costs a few dollars to put on your iPhone and can also be used on other devices. Google Assistant is available on a wide variety of smart devices. Shazam was bought by Apple Music in 2018, but don’t worry—it’s still available for Android devices. In fact, the Android version even has features that iOS doesn’t, like a pop-up window that you can use to identify songs playing in another app on your phone. These apps typically don't work as well with live performances. If you're watching a band doing a cover, but you can't quite place it, you'll probably need to use another method to identify the song.

Record the song with your phone and upload it to AudioTag. Even if you can only record a brief clip of the song you like and want to identify, you can upload it to AudioTag to identify the song from its own database when you're back at your computer. At the very least, you've got a recording of the song that you can use to play for friends or music aficionados and see if they recognize the tune.

Hum it into a song ID app like SoundHound. On your phone, you can hum the melody into SoundHound, which is available for free. The app will analyze the melody you sing and give you a list of possible options. On your computer, Midomi serves the same function. Both of these apps are typically a lot more effective for contemporary songs. Trying to find the name of the song your grandfather used to sing while he worked tends to be more difficult on these apps, and may require other methods. WatZatSong is a crowd-sourced option that works basically the same way. On this website, you can upload your clip (or yourself trying to sing and describe the song) and other people will get back to you with options.

Play the song on a virtual keyboard. If you've got an ear for the melody and an elementary knowledge of the keyboard, you can enter the melody into Musipedia or MelodyCatcher to search for the melody. These sites tend to work better for classical, wordless music and other types of non-pop music, because they have a slightly different sort of database of material to analyze.

Searching for Songs Effectively

Google any lyrics you remember in quotes. Type any lyrics you remember into Google or another search engine, making sure to add quotation marks around the lyrics. This limits the search to those words in that order, so even if all you can remember is "she said you would be mine," it'll be easier to find if you group them in quotes.

Search for the context of the song to help narrow it down. If you're looking for a song you heard during the credits of a TV show, do a quick search for "Song playing at the end of Sopranos Episode Six, Season Five" or "Song in Mazda commercial." If you heard the song on a TV show or movie, try searching for the soundtrack on iTunes. If you find it, play free samples of each song on the album by hovering your mouse over the track number and pressing the blue play button that appears. You can also try searching on YouTube when you've narrowed your search down some.

Search the artist by describing them. Describe whether its sung by a male, female, or group, and any other kinds of descriptions of the song you might remember. Ask yourself if the song sounds familiar. Is the voice distinct? Could it be somebody you already listen to or like? If you think it sounds a lot like a singer or group you have heard, check that band's website or their fan sites to see if they have any new releases and listen to them

Listen for the radio DJ. If you're hearing the song on the radio, try to stick around for a moment and listen. The DJ may go over the songs they just played. Call the station or visit the station's website to see if they post a playlist of the songs played that day.