Shazam vs soundhound which is better

While the two apps do exactly the same thing - record a small snippet of music to identify the name of the song - the way they do it is very different. Each song identifier has its own way of delivering results, and they also differ as far as what you can do with those results.

We decided to put the two apps to the test, using the iPad versions to see which one comes out on top. The first distinct difference between the two free apps is that Shazam [iTunes link] is ad-free whereas SoundHound [iTunes link] is not. Of course, the Shazam iPad app is relatively new and if it's to follow in the footsteps of its iPhone counterpart, it's only a matter of time before they will impose a 5 song per month limit on new users.

So for the time being, Shazam wins on this point, and only with its iPad version. The fact that SoundHound has no intention of imposing a limit with its free version, makes it the winner in the long run. Shazam displays the song title and artist, album cover, genre and tag date, and on a separate page, displays the artist's bio. You can download the song on iTunes, look up similar tracks, the artist's discography, and share the song on Facebook, Twitter or via Email.

SoundHound shows the song title and artist, album cover and album release date. On SoundHound, you have far more options, with the ability to download the song on iTunes, look up similar artists, look up other songs on the album, or the artist's entire discography, lyrics, videos on YouTube, tour dates, song album appearances, and share the song on Facebook or Twitter, and via email and SMS.

Another big plus for Pandora users is the ability to launch a Pandora station directly from the tagged tracks. How it initially worked when first launched in the UK in was, the users had to dial a number to get the music recognized. The phone would hang up after 30 seconds and they would then receive a text message on their phones with the name of the song and the artist.

The service would later add hyperlinks in the messages to allow the user to buy the song. The process of searching music is essentially the same for both apps — with a center button to input audio for recognition. Both services give you details related to the song — song title, album cover, genre, the name of the artist. Additionally, there are suggestions for similar music and links to purchase the track.

Both apps allow you to track the tag history, but SoundHound has more to offer. SoundHound clearly wins here. With its amazing graphic interface, it makes the user experience very appealing. The app allows you to stream music from several platforms like YouTube and Spotify with lyrics for you to sing along. Shazam on the other hand, is dead simple in its interface, making it easier for people to purchase songs.

The paid version of SoundHound is completely ad free and offers a few extra features like the on-screen widget for your cash. If you are looking for a vibrant experience then I would suggest SoundHound. When it comes to lyrics, Shazam lacks this feature, while SoundHound brings you the live lyrics for each song you listen to. It is also possible to search a song by its lyrics.

Auto ID is a feature that Shazam possess, this lets you find the songs in the background, even when you are working with some other apps on your device. Unfortunately, SoundHound does not have this option. Both Shazam and SoundHound shows the most tagged charts. The only difference is when it comes to how many. Shazam shows only the top 10 most tagged songs , while the SoundHound shows top 25 tagged charts and the name of the trending songs.

You can also bookmark the tagged songs, which is missing in the Shazam. Tallying up its time, Shazam took a total of 62 seconds to ID all songs. That leaves us with Musixmatch. In all but two instances, the app identified music in under 10 seconds, putting it on a better average pace than Shazam. Its total time was 52 seconds. Musixmatch was impressive here. Like Shazam, it didn't make any mistakes. And in most cases, it recognized songs in less time than Shazam took.

You can thus have confidence in Musixmatch as a great app to both display lyrics and identify music. Were you surprised by these results? Shazam's reputation precedes it, so Musixmatch must have worked hard to make its recognition system better. It's a shame that the app has annoying ads, though. If you don't want to put up with them, Shazam is still a great choice. Meanwhile, keep in mind that these music recognition apps are just one way to identify songs stuck in your head.

Have a tune stuck in your head? Want to identify which tune it is? Here are several ways to name any song you can't remember. He left his IT job to write full-time in and has never looked back. He's been covering tech tutorials, video game recommendations, and more as a professional writer for over seven years.

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