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Nine Music Recognition Alternatives to Shazam for PC in 2024

June 30, 2023 • Devin Partida

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Are you looking for alternatives to Shazam for PC? With so many ways to listen to and capture music, we thought it 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. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of music recognition services if Shazam isn’t cutting it for you.

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.

Here are the ten best music recognition apps for PC.

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 for 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 the same way. 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.

2. Alexa Music Commands

If you’re a techie audience member, then we think you’ll benefit from this option. 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 direct and straightforward. To get music playing in your home, say the “Alexa, play some music” command.

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.

3. SoundHound

Perhaps one of the closest tools to Shazam, SoundHound provides users 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 it is you are listening to. One of the neat features of SoundHound is it allows users to sing and hum into the microphone of their device and SoundHound will recognize that catchy song that has been stuck in your head for days.

4. Audiggle

Similar to 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.

5. 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. If you desire, 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 not only discover music but where you discover other people. You can create your own profile, sing your favorite songs, and share them with other midomi users.

6. Musixmatch

Musixmatch lets you search and share song lyrics & translations. Additionally, Musixmatch 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 music 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 catalogue of music lyrics in the translation they need.

7. 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 available as a Chrome extension too. 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 no matter what you’re listening to, it’s likely AHA can recognize it. Unfortunately, you can only identify 10 songs a day with AHA, so it’s not as helpful as some 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. Keep in mind that it will only look at the first 60 seconds, so you may have to trim the file first to make sure it identifies the right song.

8. 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 identifying the song within them. The site supports a wide range of different 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 through what other people have searched for recently and rediscover old favorites from past searches.

9. 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 take advantage of Google’s music recognition features.

Setting up the Google Assistant unofficial client can be a little bit complicated, so it’s not ideal for everyone. Once you have it up and running, though, it works a lot like Google Assistant on Android. To use it 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.

10. 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 things like “Who is this artist?” to learn more about the specific details of a song.

Looking for Ways to Play Your Newly Discovered Music?

Today’s music listeners have a large selection of music recognition services to choose from. If you don’t want to use Shazam for PC, there are plenty of alternatives that can stand in for it.

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!


Want more music apps? Read 7 Apps for Making Music

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