The Best Music Recognition Apps for iPhone and Android

Have you ever found yourself humming along to a song playing in a café, on the radio, or in a movie, only to realize you have no idea what it’s called? In moments like these, music recognition apps become invaluable. These powerful tools can instantly identify songs with just a few seconds of audio, helping you discover new music and revisit forgotten favorites. Whether you’re a casual listener or a dedicated music enthusiast, having a reliable song identifier on your smartphone can enhance your listening experience in unexpected ways.

With advancements in artificial intelligence and audio fingerprinting technology, today’s music recognition apps go far beyond simply naming a tune. Many offer additional features, such as real-time lyrics, integration with streaming services, and even historical tracking of your discovered songs. Whether you use an iPhone or an Android device, there are numerous apps designed to help you identify songs quickly and accurately. In this article, we’ll explore the best music recognition apps available, breaking down their key features and what makes them stand out in an increasingly competitive market.

Also Read: The Best Music Streaming Apps

Musixmatch

Price: Free / $2.99 per month / $35.99 per year

Musixmatch, which has the title of the largest lyrics database, is one of the best music recognition apps with over 70 million users worldwide.

Musixmatch, which is different from other apps in terms of its working mechanism, has a music player function as well as verbal and audible definitions of songs. Thanks to Musixmatch’s extensive lyrics database, you can easily find a song whose name you do not know by listening to a part of it or typing in a line of lyrics.

The app works integrated with music platforms such as Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, Pandora, Apple Music and Google Play Music. Musixmatch is one of the rare song recognition apps where you can see the lyrics while listening to music. In addition, thanks to the app’s support for 58 languages, you can translate the lyrics of your favorite song into any language you want.

Musixmatch on the App Store

Musixmatch on Google Play

SoundHound

Price: Free / $6.99

If you’re looking for an alternative to the Shazam app, we recommend you take a look at the SoundHound app. While its working logic is quite similar to Shazam, it is definitely more capable in some respects.

SoundHound has quite different capabilities compared to other song recognition apps. The most striking feature of the app is undoubtedly the hands-free mode. Thanks to this feature, it will start to identify the song you want as soon as you say “Hey Hound”. Thanks to SoundHound’s hands-free mode, it offers the opportunity to learn by asking the latest song of your favorite artist. You can also learn by humming the song you want. 

It should be noted that the SoundHound app, which has two different versions, paid and free, also supports Spotify and Google Play.

SoundHound on the App Store

SoundHound on Google Play

Also Read: The Best Music Players for Android

Shazam

Price: Free 

Shazam, which is one of the most popular music recognition apps, has a very rich range of features and finds the song you want in seconds.

Once Shazam finds the song, it allows you to watch the lyrics, specific parts of the song and even the video of the song with Youtube Music. At the same time, the app has Spotify, Google Play Music and Apple Music integration.

At the same time, the Shazam app, which can work offline, can identify the music it saves in its memory as soon as you have an Internet connection. If you’re looking for a song finder app, Shazam is one of the best music recognition apps for both iPhone and Android devices. 

Shazam on the App Store

Shazam on Google Play

Beatfind Music Recognition

Price: Free

Beatfind, which is a very popular music recognition app among Android users because it is free, is only available on Google Play. The app, which allows you to quickly identify a song, has made it to our list of best music recognition apps as it also allows you to discover other top tracks of the song’s artist and read the artist’s biography.

With Spotify, YouTube and Deezer integrated, Beatfind also allows you to listen to the preview of the identified song or search for the song on the internet. If you want, you can share the song you find on your social media accounts.

Beatfind on Google Play

Also Read: The Best Volume Booster Apps for Android

Chord AI

Price: Free / $14.99

Chord ai is actually a chord recognition app that listens to the sound of the instruments to identify the chord. Popular especially among the guitar players, the app listens to the music played from your device, from any video or audio streaming service or played live around you. 

The free version is pretty enough to recognize major, minor, augmented, and diminished chords. If you need more complex chord recognition like, half-diminished or power chords, you can consider purchasing its Pro version for $14.99. 

Chord ai on Google Play

Chord ai on the App Store