13 Music Recognition Alternatives to Shazam for PC in 2026

Are you looking for alternatives to Shazam for PC? With so many ways to listen to and capture music, it is important to set the record straight by letting you know there are indeed alternatives to Shazam.

While Shazam has helped thousands of users, not everyone loves the recognition tool. If Shazam isn’t cutting it for you, we’ve compiled a list of music recognition services.

If you’re searching for new ways to capture music, we’ve listed nine music recognition tools you should consider for your music needs. We’ll examine each tool and its benefits, functionality and everything you need to know to make an informed choice when it comes to how you capture music.

Why Look for Shazam Alternatives?

While Shazam is a great tool for identifying songs on the go, it’s primarily designed for mobile devices, which can leave you wanting more on your PC. If you’re using a desktop, you likely need something more robust — tools that can integrate seamlessly with your software, handle multiple audio sources and offer advanced features for music discovery.

A desktop-native experience provides better accuracy and gives you more control over how you explore and manage your music. Whether compatibility, functionality or a smoother workflow, finding the right PC-friendly alternative can make all the difference.

On a PC,  you’re often juggling browser tabs, streaming apps, DAWs and games at the same time. That’s why Shazam alternatives that live in your browser, integrate with voice assistants, like Alexa or Cortana, or plug directly into your music library can feel far more natural than constantly reaching for your phone to identify tracks. 

How We Evaluated Shazam Alternatives for PC

What makes a music recognition tool genuinely useful on a desktop? For this roundup, you can think about each option in terms of a few key metrics:

• Speed: How quickly the tool returns a match after you start listening or upload a clip
• Accuracy: How reliably it identifies songs, including live recordings or background tracks
• Ease of use on Windows 10 or 11: How simple it is to install, launch and keep in your day-to-day flow
• Input flexibility: Whether it can recognize humming or singing, audio from your PC speakers, mic input or uploaded files
• Cost and limitations: Free tiers, daily limits and whether advanced features require a subscription or developer account
• Integration and additional features: Things like lyrics, tagging your local library, browser extensions or voice assistant support

As you read through the tools below, you can mentally “score” each one against these parameters to decide which fits your setup and how you like to discover music.

13 Shazam Alternatives

Here’s a brief overview of our picks for the best Shazam for PC alternatives:

Tool	What It’s Best For
Cortana	Quick access for Windows users
Alexa	Convenient replacement if you already have Amazon Alexa
SoundHound	The closest tool to Shazam
Audiggle	Analyzing audio from a variety of sources (not just music)
ACRCloud	Professional-grade applications
Midomi	A social experience
Musixmatch	Searching song lyrics and translations
AHA Music	A Chrome extension
AudioTag	Uploading files for identification
Google Assistant Unofficial Desktop Client	Running Google Assistant on a PC
Bixby	Running a Samsung tool on a PC
SongKong	Keeping your music library organized
WatZatSong	Identifying the most obscure music

If you’re specifically wondering which PC music identifier best recognizes humming or singing, start by paying close attention to SoundHound, Midomi and Google Assistant, as these are built with voice and melody input in mind.

Read further for a deeper dive into each tool!

1. Cortana

Cortana is Microsoft’s digital assistant and was introduced to us through Windows 10. If your device uses Windows 10 or 11, you can utilize Cortana to identify songs. To do this, simply open Cortana and if you have the voice feature enabled, say “Hey Cortana.” After this say, “What is this song?” Cortana will get to work listening to music using your device’s microphone and then let you know what she finds.

Another neat feature of Cortana music recognition is that it can recognize songs playing directly on your PC similarly. In this instance, make sure you aren’t using headphones and that your device’s microphone will pick up the audio being played.

Interestingly, Cortana used to have a dedicated music recognition button, but Windows removed it a few years ago. However, asking Cortana to recognize a song through voice commands still works.

How to use Cortana for Music Recognition on PC

• Open the Cortana search box or app on Windows 10/11.
• Ensure your microphone is enabled and working.
• Say “Hey, Cortana, what’s this song?” while the track is playing near your PC speakers.

Benefits: Cortana is built into Windows, so you don’t need to install additional software, and it works well for quick, hands-free checks.

Drawbacks: Its music recognition features are limited compared to dedicated apps and may struggle with very obscure songs or noisy environments.

2. Alexa Music Commands

We think you’ll benefit from this option if you’re a techie audience member. While Alexa can perform more than 3,000 commands, most people ask her to help with a simple request to play music. You can use Alexa on your PC by downloading the free Alexa app from the Microsoft Store and signing in to your Amazon account.

Alexa’s music commands are straightforward. Say the “Alexa, play some music” command to get music playing in your home.

However, for this article, we are focused on what Alexa can do to help you identify music! If you recall song lyrics but can’t seem to remember the song title, you can say, “Alexa, play that song that goes, ‘I used to rule the world, seas would rise when I gave the word,” and she would know to play “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay.

On a desktop, this makes Alexa a handy fallback when you don’t recall a title but can quote a line or two.

How to Use Alexa for Music Recognition on PC

• Install the Alexa app from the Microsoft Store on Windows 10/11.
• Sign in with your Amazon account and enable the microphone.
• Either say “Alexa, what’s this song?” while music is playing, or use lyric-based queries such as “Alexa, what’s the song that goes…”

Benefits: Great if you already use Alexa speakers or Amazon Music, and you prefer voice commands.
Drawbacks: Alexa is better at matching lyrics and known tracks than identifying short, noisy clips. It doesn’t support humming-only input the way some specialized tools do.

3. SoundHound

Perhaps one of the closest tools to Shazam, SoundHound provides users with a full-featured music identification interface with a big orange button that reads “Ok Hound.”

When users hit this button, SoundHound will begin tagging whatever they are listening to. One of SoundHound’s neat features is that it allows users to sing and hum into their device’s microphone, and SoundHound will recognize that catchy song that has been stuck in their heads for days.

If you’re asking which PC music identifier recognizes singing or humming, SoundHound is one of the strongest choices, thanks to its melody-matching engine. While it’s mainly a mobile app, you can still use it alongside your PC by letting your computer play the audio through speakers and holding your phone nearby. You can also hum directly into your phone’s mic when the tune is stuck in your head.

On Windows 10, there’s no native SoundHound desktop app, so if you really want it running on your PC, you’ll need to either pair it with your phone or experiment with an Android emulator — a good option only if you’re comfortable with extra setup.

4. Audiggle

Like Shazam and SoundHound, Audiggle will listen to whatever is playing on your PC. With this recognition tool, you can capture audio from not only music but also a variety of other sources:

• Soundtracks
• Online video
• Internet Radio

With Audiggle, you can capture just about any major audio source. While Audiggle works best by capturing high-quality audio, it can recognize background music that might not be very loud or easy to identify with human ears.

Audiggle is best when you want a simple desktop program that listens directly to your PC’s audio output without much tweaking. The trade-off is that its database isn’t as broad as some cloud-powered services, so the biggest hits are usually recognized quickly. Rare or niche tracks may sometimes be missed.

5. ACRCloud

If you’re looking for a professional-grade music recognition tool for your PC, ACRCloud is a fantastic choice. Trusted by developers and media companies worldwide, this platform uses advanced machine learning algorithms to analyze audio signals rapidly. It breaks down elements like pitch, tempo, rhythm and timbre to identify songs accurately, even in noisy environments or with partial clips.

Similarly, these algorithms allow apps to learn your listening habits, giving you personalized insights into your music preferences and helping you discover new tracks you’ll love. Whether recognizing audio files, tagging a digital music library or identifying live tracks in real time, ACRCloud offers reliability and cutting-edge features that deliver results every time.

If you’re comparing ACRCloud, Audiggle and older tools like Tunatic on PC, think of ACRCloud as the “pro” player in this space.

• ACRCloud: Highest accuracy and speed for most use cases, but usually accessed through apps, APIs or customer integrations rather than a simple consumer app
• Audiggle: Easier for everyday users, with a straightforward desktop client, but less powerful and flexible than ACRCloud
• Tunatic (legacy): Once popular as a free PC music ID tool, but now largely outdated, with a smaller and less frequently updated database

If you’re a developer, content creator or power user, ACRCloud is the option that scales with you. For quick casual lookups, Audiggle or browser-based tools will be more convenient.

6. Midomi

This web-based music recognition tool lets you identify songs by singing or humming into your microphone. The neat thing about Midomi is that you contribute to the music database. You can use Midomi’s online recording studio in any language to record yourself singing. The next time someone goes to search for the song you recorded, you could appear as a top result.

Midomi can be a place where you discover music and other people. You can create your profile, sing your favorite songs, and share them with other Midomi users.

From a PC point of view, Midomi is especially convenient because it runs directly in your browser — there’s nothing to install on Windows 11 or 11. Just head to the site, allow mic access and start singing or humming.

Compared with SoundHound, Midomi leans more into the social side — you’re not only identifying tracks, you’re also discovering other people’s performances. If you enjoy singing and want your searches to feed into a community, Midomi is a great complement to more utility-first tools.

7. Musixmatch

Musixmatch lets you search and share song lyrics and translations. Additionally, It enables you to display lyrics synchronized with the music being played. This means the tool can access your music library and track lyrics from several streaming services, such as Spotify, Google Play Music and YouTube.

Musixmatch is unique because it used to be associated with Spotify. Users of Musixmatch will have access to a huge catalog of music lyrics in the translation they need.

Think of Musicmatch as the ideal partner once you’ve already identified a track. You can use it on a desktop to follow along with synchronized lyrics, check translations and verify that the song you just discovered is really the one you had in mind. 

The downside is that it’s not a pure “what’s this song?” tool on its own — it shines when combined with another identifier or streaming service.

8. AHA Music

Another Shazam alternative for PC is AHA Music, an online music recognition service. Like Midomi, AHA is a web-based service, not a dedicated app, but unlike Midomi, it’s also available as a Chrome extension. If you want to know what a song is, hit record on the website or Chrome extension, and AHA will search for it.

AHA Music uses data from Spotify, Deezer, YouTube and more to fingerprint and recognize songs. Its database has more than 100 million music fingerprints, so AHA will likely recognize it no matter what you’re listening to. Unfortunately, you can only identify 10 songs daily with AHA, so it’s not as helpful as others.

If a video or podcast has a song you want to identify, AHA has another service you may find helpful. You can upload a file up to 100MB to the website and AHA will try to find the song in it. Remember that it will only look at the first 60 seconds, so you may have to trim the file first to ensure it identifies the right song.

Because AHA Music lives in your browser, it’s one of the best browser extensions for song identification on desktop. It’s perfect if you mainly listen to music on YouTube, web players and internet audio in Edge or Chrome. 

Benefits: Includes one-click identification from your current tab. Works well with streaming platforms and online videos.

Drawbacks: Daily identification limit on the free tier. Less suitable if most of your listening happens in desktop apps instead of the browser.

9. AudioTag

If you don’t want to use AHA, AudioTag is another music recognition online service. The website looks a little dated, but its developers are still active, so it can still identify newer songs. Unlike some other Shazam alternatives for PC, AudioTag uses proprietary acoustic fingerprinting technology, not another developer’s system.

AudioTag doesn’t have microphone support, so it doesn’t work exactly like Shazam. Instead, it works like AHA’s upload feature, letting you upload files and identify the song within them. The site supports various file types and sizes, though clips between 10 and 30 seconds will get the best results.

AudioTag also has a few other features you may find entertaining or helpful. You can browse what other people have searched for recently and rediscover old favorites from past searches.

AudioTag is ideal if you already have the audio file, such as a clip you recorded from a DJ set or a section of a livestream. Uploading small, clean snippets usually produces the best matches. The main limitation is that it cannot “listen live” to what’s currently playing on your PC, so it works best as a follow-up tool after you’ve captured or trimmed a recording.

10. Google Assistant Unofficial Desktop Client

Android users can attest that Google Assistant is a worthy alternative to Cortana’s music recognition services. While there’s no official Google Assistant PC app, there is an unofficial client. The Google Assistant Unofficial Desktop Client is available on GitHub and lets you maximize Google’s music recognition features.

Setting up the Google Assistant unofficial client can be complicated, so it’s not ideal for everyone. Once you have it up and running, though, it works like Google Assistant on Android. To recognize songs, run it, click the microphone and say, “Hey Google, what’s this song?”

With Google Assistant, you can even hum a song instead of playing it. If there’s a melody stuck in your head and you don’t know what it is, this feature can help you. As helpful as the Google Assistant unofficial client is, its complicated setup makes it fall short of the best music recognition app.

In terms of accuracy, Google’s melody-matching is among the best when you’re humming or singing rather than playing a studio recording. The extra setup work pays off if you want that power directly on your PC. But for most users, using Google Assistant on an Android phone next to your computer will be the faster, simpler route.

11. Bixby

Similarly, you can use Bixby, Samsun’s smart assistant, as an alternative to Shazam for PC. Unlike the previous entry, though, Bixby has an official Windows app you can download. Start by searching for and downloading it from the Microsoft Store.

Bixby works like other smart assistants from here. All you have to do is open the app, say “Hi, Bixby,” then ask “What’s the name of this song?” while something’s playing. Some users report that Bixby is a bit slower than Google Assistant, but it’ll still get the job done.

You can also ask Bixby questions like “Who is this artist?” to learn more about a song’s specific details.

Bixby makes the most sense if you already live in the Samsung ecosystem and want a familiar voice assistant on your PC. Just keep in mind that it’s more of an all-purpose assistant than a specialist music tool, so it may not match the recognition depth of platforms like SoundHound or ACRCloud.

12. SongKong

If managing your digital music library feels like a chore, SongKong can change the game for you. This smart music tagging and recognition tool automatically identifies your songs and cleans up your collection with accurate metadata, including artist names, album details and release dates.

It’s perfect for keeping your library organized and making every track easy to find. When you deal with thousands of files or just a few favorites, SongKong saves you time and effort while delivering professional-level results. It’s not just about recognition — it involves turning your music library into a beautifully curated experience.

Compared with other tools on this list, SongKong is less about “what’s playing right now?” and more about “what’s in my collection?” It’s a great fit if you have a large local library ripped from CDs, vinyl records or downloads and want to automatically tag everything using acoustic fingerprints. The downside is that it’s overkill if you only stream music and rarely keep files on your PC.

13. WatZatSong

When Shazam and other tools fall short, WatZatSong steps in as your go-to for finding those impossible-to-identify tracks. This community-driven platform puts the power of music enthusiasts to work for you.

Simply upload a clip or describe the song and other users will jump in to help you figure it out. It’s perfect for uncovering obscure or niche tracks that traditional recognition apps might overlook. Whether a rare B-side or a melody stuck in your head, WatZatSong turns music discovery into a fun, collaborative experience.

Because real people are behind the answers, WatZatSong can sometimes identify songs that no algorithm can match, especially older TV themes, regional hits or live bootlegs. The tradeoff is time — you’ll often wait for replies, so it works best as a last resort alongside faster automatic tools.

Looking for Ways to Play Your Newly Discovered Music?

As a PC user, you’ve got plenty of music recognition options tailored to your needs, whether a casual listener looking for quick song IDs or a professional managing an extensive audio library. 

Plenty of alternatives can stand in if you don’t want to use Shazam for PC.

If you’re loyal to Shazam, the Chrome Extension lets you stick with the platform while using it seamlessly on your browser. But why not explore the other amazing tools out there? From advanced tagging features to live music identification, there’s a solution for everyone.

Once you find your new songs, you’ll need somewhere to listen to them. Whatever service you prefer, you can rest easy knowing you can listen to and find lyrics for all your new song discoveries!

To recap quickly:

• Choose SoundHood, Midomi or Google Assistant if humming or singing is your main use case.
• Go for AHA Music or the Shazam browser extension if you mostly listen in your browser and want one-click identification.
• Pick Audiggle or Cortana/Alexa/Bixby if you prefer lightweight helpers that live in your desktop.
• Opt for ACRCloud or SongKong if you care most about accuracy at scale, tagging huge libraries or building professional workflows.

Mix and match a couple of these tools and you’ll cover almost every situation where you catch yourself thinking, “Wow, what song is that?”

Original Publish Date 06/30/2023 — Updated 12/1/2025

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