After launching the feature on the YouTube mobile app, song recognition and hum-to-search are now available on YouTube Music as well. A standout feature is the option to sing or hum a song, which some competitors like Shazam don’t offer. After using both apps for a while, I might finally be ditching Shazam. Here’s why.
How to Use Music Recognition on YouTube
Unlike dedicated song recognition apps, you have to jump through a few hoops to get to the feature on YouTube and YouTube Music.
Users have reported that the song recognition feature on YouTube Music is missing after appearing for a few days. However, the steps to launch the feature are the same on YouTube.
YouTube vs Shazam: Why I’m Switching
Shazam is Faster to Get To, But Not by Much
Shazam has been my go-to song recognition app from the start, all the way back when you had to dial a number, hold up the phone to the music, and then get song information in a text message. The process is much simpler now — open the app and tap a button. It’s even faster if you have the Shazam widget on your home screen, taking away the step of launching the app.
This does make the extra taps to recognize a song on YouTube feel like one too many, but enough to be annoying. And the YouTube widget works just as well as a replacement. Tap the mic on the widget, switch to the “Song” tab, and you’re good to go.
Hum-to-search Works Well, For the Most Part
What makes YouTube’s music recognition feature stand out is hum-to-search. you’re able to sing or hum a song that’s stuck in your head, and in an ideal world, YouTube should tell you what it is. It worked great! Mostly. When it worked, it only took a few seconds to recognize what I was humming and instantly popped up the relevant song on YouTube.
It’s not clear what database YouTube is using for song recognition, but it seems like getting a song recognized depends a lot on its popularity. I had no trouble getting the app to find popular Bollywood tracks and anything from the Billboard Top 40, but it would miss anything that was remotely older or not mainstream. It also does a lot better if you can toss even a few words in there as opposed to just humming the song. The hum recognition has also improved significantly since the feature first launched.
Shazam doesn’t offer this feature, so if you plan to use hum-to-search, YouTube’s song recognition is the better option.
Playing the Song After Finding It is Easier with YouTube
When you identify a song on YouTube, you’ll get the results on, well, YouTube, and that’s exactly what I need. Ifyou use YouTube Music, the option to instantly add a song you identify to a playlist is fantastic. And, of course, YouTube is still YouTube, so there’s a lot more to do than just find music.
So, after more than a decade of using Shazam, it might finally be time for me to switch. Or have both widgets on my home screen.
