Shazam Computer Audio

You probably already know about the great little app “Shazam”. This little tool can help you identify songs just by “listening” to them through your smartphone or tablet. But what if you’re at your desk and the song is playing on the computer?

Midomi.com is a web-based tool provided by a SoundHound—a Shazam competitor. This is the closest thing there is a to a web-based version of Shazam. This tool instructs you to “sing or hum” a particular song, but you don’t have to do that. Play the actual song for your computer’s microphone to hear and it will identify the song. Shazam for audio playing on my PC Is there a software like Shazam (or a version of Shazam) that can identify songs currently playing in my computer's audio output? I only have headphones so I can't just play the music on speakers, unfortunately.

Technology has advanced so much in the past 20 years. It wasn’t that long ago that we had to try to remember the tune and hum it for friends or family later on to ask them what it was. If we heard a song on the radio, we had to call and ask what just played – and hope we could get through. But those days are long gone, thanks to modern computers and cell phones, and apps like Shazam!

What Shazam Does

When you’re on the go – whether it’s in the car, the supermarket, or wherever you may find yourself – you may find yourself hearing a catchy new song. Or maybe it’s an old one and you just can’t place it. Even better, you’re debating with your significant other, your parents or your buddies about who sings it. With just a few moments to “hear” the song, Shazam can give you practically all the info you’re looking for.

Shazam uses a huge library of digital fingerprints to compare what you hear to what it already has stored. With just a few points from each, it can look for a match based on key moments of “intensity” in the song. You can find out more about how it works in our article How Shazam Works.

Does it always work? Well, it’s pretty reliable, at least. There are millions of songs logged into the database. But it only works with exact matches – that is, recorded copies of the song.

That means they normally have to be published, as well. You can’t go to a concert and hold up your phone hoping to get a match. You can’t try to sing or hum it yourself. And if Shazam doesn’t already have a deal with the label that produced the recording, you might be out of luck, too. But if it’s a recording that’s been released, odds are you’re going to get an answer.

Many commercials and TV shows also take advantage of Shazam’s technology, allowed you to access additional online content just by activating Shazam on your phone – or as you’ll learn here, on your PC!

Why Would I Want to Use Shazam On My Computer

Why would you ever need to use Shazam on a computer? As hard as it is to believe, there are still moments when we don’t have our phones handy. Maybe it’s charging. Or maybe you’ve lost your phone privileges. Could be your data plan is at its limits. Or are you just “traditional” and want to stick with an old Nokia or even a regular landline? For whatever the reason, you don’t have the Shazam app available and you’re stuck at a computer when that song comes on!

The other facet is that Shazam isn’t just about music. Many television commercials and programs offer additional content available online. And you need Shazam to be able to access it!

Shazam can even run in the background, so you can multitask and just check the list of songs and other content later. Maybe you’re working on a spreadsheet for work or an essay for class, or deep in a high-stakes MMORPG. Any of these make the computer so much more convenient than hunting for your phone.

But – Shazam Is For My Phone, Right?

Shazam doesn’t make a program or have a website with the functionality of the app. So, what’s the alternative? Fortunately, there’s Bluestacks.

This guide is going to help you install Shazam on your Windows-based PC, so you can use it to identify music that plays through the computer itself. Got a bunch of misnamed music files? Want to quickly buy that song you just heard on Vevo? This is the way to do it!

What Do I Need To Use Shazam On My PC

Bluestacks is an Android emulator for the PC. With it, you can install and run almost any Android app on your computer. It’s also the most widely-used emulator and works well with most newer PCs, even without a dedicated graphics card. We’re just going to talk about Shazam here, but you could use Bluestacks to run just about any app – Instagram, Clash of Clans or whatever you’d like!

Here are some of the advantages of using Bluestacks:

High level of compatibility
You can have multiple windows with different apps running
You have the convenience of using your PC peripherals, like a full-sized keyboard, speakers, and webcam
In most regions, it’s free

There is an iOS version (that is, for MacIntosh) of Bluestacks floating around but it hasn’t been updated in quite a while. In fact, it’s buried on their webpage, if it’s there at all. It is available on some third-party websites but we wouldn’t trust them as completely reliable or virus-free. However, if you’re a Mac user, you may be able to find and install Shazam in the Mac Store. This will make it much easier for you to use it.

System Requirements

You’ll just have to make sure that your computer is up to the task of running Bluestacks.Here are the requirements:

Minimum System Requirements

You should have a relatively modern computer. It can put a bit of a draw on your system and slow things down a bit. The minimum requirements to run it are:

Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista SP2, Windows XP SP3 (32-bit only)
You must have administrator access to your computer
2 GB RAM/main memory – you cannot substitute virtual memory for 2GB RAM
4 GB disk space available for storing Android games and apps and their data
Updated video drivers
A broadband internet connection

Recommended System Requirements

If you want the best performance, or you play MOBA, Strategy games, RPGs or use similar apps that have high video demands, you’ll want to be sure to meet these requirements, in addition to what’s given above:

Windows 10
Processor: Intel Core i5-680 (passmark 3500) or higher processor with virtual extensions enabled in BIOS
Graphics: Intel HD 5200 (passmark 750) or higher
Memory: 6 GB or higher
Hard drive: SSD (or fusion), with a minimum of 40 GB available
Power Plan: it’s best to set your computer to high performance

Installing Bluestacks

You can follow this guide to download and install BlueStacks then add Shazam to it. First we’ll talk about Bluestacks.

Navigate to the BlueStacks homepage.
Click the blue “Download” button.
Wait for the file to download. It may take a few minutes, depending on your internet connection.
Find the file in your “download” folder, and double-click to run.
Read the license. We didn’t find anything unusual, but it’s a good habit, even if it’s boring.
When the Install window appears, click the button.
Once the installation completes, we recommend using the guide for new users, by clicking the right arrow and scrolling through the guide. This will help familiarize you with how your keyboard and mouse will substitute for taps on the screen.
Once you finish with the introduction, “X” it out.
A screen will prompt you to sign into your Google account.
- First, choose your country
- Sign in with your Google credentials. For most cases, you probably want to use the same account you use on your phone. so that everything will synchronize. It can sometimes take a little time to connect.
- If you don’t have a Google account, you can sign up for free here.
- Read and check/uncheck any options you’d like on the Google Services form.
- Add the name you’ll use on this phone. This autofills with the name you used on your Google account, but you can change it.
- You’re in! You can “X” out whatever window first pops up asking you to install an app (unless you want that app installed). This will leave you with a window with a search bar and many other apps showing.

Installing Shazam

The next step will be to find Shazam in the Google Play Store.

In the top right of the Bluestacks window, you’ll see a search box. Click there, then type Shazam and hit enter on your keyboard
A new window opens with your search results. The Shazam app should be the first one to appear. Click “Install” to proceed. If you want to read more, click the “more information” button, then return to “Install” when you’re ready.
A new popup appears, asking you to authorize Shazam to access features of your phone. Currently, that includes access to your microphone, camera, location, identity, and Bluetooth connection information. If you are comfortable allowing this access, click “Install”.
Once Shazam is installed, you’ll see the button to “Open” the app. But you’re not quite ready yet!

Configuring Your Computer To Run Shazam

If you prefer, here’s a video guide. Written instructions are right below it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzGtIpxYYBM

So far you’ve installed Bluestacks and Shazam, but there’s one more thing to do before using it. You have to tell your computer to listen to itself! It’s not terribly hard, but it does mean you have to change your sound settings in Windows.

By default, your sound won’t pass through your system, and Shazam won’t “hear” it. These simple changes in your sound configuration will fix that problem.

These instructions are for Windows 10 but should be similar for all versions.

Completely close Bluestacks
Right-click the speaker icon in the bottom right corner of your screen, and choose “Recording Devices”
The window that pops up will show your microphone and other sound input devices you have connected. It usually does not show disabled devices. So right-click in the blank space and click on “Show disabled devices”
Right-click on “Stereo Mix” and choose “Enable”.
Right-click again and choose “Set as Default Device”.
One last right click and choose “Set as Default Communications Device.”
Click OK at the bottom of that window.
Now you can launch Bluestacks again
Launch Shazam within Bluestacks (you can find it on the “Apps” tab)
Switch windows and play a song – whether on YouTube, in your audio player, or anywhere else.
Flip back to the Bluestacks window, and press the Shazam button to listen
That’s all – if the song’s in Shazam’s database, the information will come up!

Auto Shazam works too – just hold your mouse click! You’ll end up with a list of all songs that play while it’s active.

If Shazam says it can’t recognize the input, go back to the last section and make sure you haven’t missed any steps.

If you need to use your microphone for communication, repeat the steps above – in step 4, choose the microphone you’ll be using, whether it be an integrated one or one you need to plug into your computer.

Conclusion

There’s definitely lots of reasons you might want to use Shazam on your computer. And now you know how! Remember that Shazam is just one of the apps you can install in Bluestacks, and most will work without any additional configuration.

There’s probably over a hundred million songs in the world and the number is certainly increasing each day. With that number of songs, the chances of you listening to a song that you really like and not knowing the title or the author is pretty high. The old school trick in identifying an unknown song is try to catch one or two sentences of the lyrics and look for it in a search engine such as Google. This method should work most of the time but definitely not for some instrumental genres such as classical, dance, electronic, jazz…

There are apps for smartphone such as SoundHound, TrackID, MusicID and Bing Audio (selected countries only) that make it so much easier to recognize unknown songs by running the app and touching a button to start recording a short clip to perform the music recognition. As for desktop computers, music recognition is also possible through these free software or online services.

1. midomi

If you’ve heard of the popular SoundHound app for smartphones, it actually started off from midomi, a free web based music recognition service. This is why you can find SoundHound being advertised in most parts of midomi’s website and even using their favicon!

Midomi uses flash player to activate the microphone on your computer so that it can capture the music for recognition. All you need to do is click on the button that says “Click and Sing or Hum” followed by clicking the allow button when you are prompted to give camera and microphone access to midomi. You can either sing, hum or even play the music if you’ve managed to record it and midomi will attempt to recognize the song. Fast, no frills and easy to use since there is no need to install any third party application for midomi to work other than Flash Player.

Visit midomi

2. Shazam

Shazam is a very popular music identification app for Android with nearly 2 millions reviews averaging 4.4 out of 5 stars! Fortunately you can also find a desktop version but only available to download for Windows 8.1 through the Windows Store.

It is a no brainer to use Shazam. Run the program, click on the big Shazam icon and it will start spinning to start recognizing the music coming from your microphone. Upon finding a match, Shazam will show the album cover together with links to buy the music.

Download Shazam

3. musiXmatch

The music recognition feature called “Music ID” found in musiXmatch is powered by Gracenote and if you didn’t know, Gracenote has the largest database of music and video metadata. This would mean that musiXmatch has the ability to recognize a lot of songs. The desktop version of musiXmatch is also quite similar to Shazam in the sense that it is only available for Windows 8.1 via the Windows Store.

musiXmatch primarily aims to find and match lyrics to your music tracks found on your computer. You can find the Music ID function by right clicking anywhere on the app, and select Music ID from the top menu. Then click on the microphone icon that says “TAP TO START” to start recording the music for recognition.

Download musiXmatch

4. AudioTag

Although AudioTag’s database only has nearly 2 million tracks which is nowhere comparable with Gracenote’s database that is used by musiXmatch, AudioTag has successfully helped to recognize 1.5 million queries so far. It also offers a slightly different method in recognizing music which is either through uploading a full or short fragment of audio or specifying the URL to the audio file in WAV, MP3, OGG, FLAC, FLV, AMR, MP4 and many more.

AudioTag offers a great alternative to music recognition for people who do not have the permission to install third party apps like Shazam and musiXmatch, and also if they do not have a microphone.

Visit AudioTag

5. WatZatSong

If none of the apps or online services above managed to help you recognize an unknown song probably due to the low quality of the recorded music, your last option would be to record or upload the sample music and let the community of WatZatSong help you identify it.

Before you can post a sample, you must first sign up for a free account that does not require verification through email. After signing up and logging in, click on the POST A SAMPLE button located at the top of the website and you’ll given a choice of whether to record the sample using your microphone, or upload the music file. Select the genre that you think the music belongs to and also the language. Enter any comments you have about the music and click the Confirm button.

Visit WatZatSong

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ConcernedMusicfan2 months ago

“AHA Music” proven to be very good at identifying music from various regions {English; Korean; Vaporwave}

Better than Midomi in my opinion! Comes with 2 modes of search

Geoffrey3 years ago

Thank you for this article. Someone else found the song for me on WatZatSong by listening to the recording I made of 1 minute. Very much appreciated.

I can tell you I finally found and bought one of my “songs” a couple of days ago after not hearing it for 24 years. It played occasionally on the radio. I did not know the author or the title, and I typically listen only to instrumental music, and the only recording was the one playing in my brain.

This particular one was “Short Stories” by Ray Obiedo, with a distinctive bass rhythm in the first half. These trendy tools like SoundHound and Shazam are absolutely worthless for locating instrumental music sans a complete database.

Greg4 years ago

Anything based on lyrics is redundant to what a Google search provides and of no value.

The real challenge is this:. You don’t know the artist, you don’t know the title, and you CERTAINLY don’t have a recording. All you have is a tune in your head… From something you heard twice on the radio 30 years ago.

Until we get there, these tools are pretty much worthless.

Until we get there, these tools and others like them are pretty much the only chance you’ve got. It’s either slim chance or no chance if you don’t try, I’d choose the first option.

John4 years ago

Greg & Halgoo – if it’s only in your head – try downloading MuseScore or Finale… then write it as music…
then try to get that “identified”…

You are right, John. I’ve worked extensively in MuseScore for my own compositions and it’s probably time to do just that… Kudos on that suggestion.

qtro1 year ago

“From something you heard twice on the radio 30 years ago.”
The average Radio play the same bulls**t over and over and over and over.
So what you need to do think about the genre of the song (to reduce the decade it was originally played at the radio since just because it was made 30 years ago, this doenst mean the song was created at that year) and then look at the top billboard charts and the song will be there, I heard at some research paper that 2 new songs are added to the average radio stations (that play the same stuff over and over) each week so at max you have 104 songs per year and some you will discover few seconds before it start that is not what you want.

nice articel, I once found my song within only 7 second provided, then upload it on WatZatSong, and replied in a 7 minutes for an arabic song artist and title!.

my name is k4 years ago

Thank you for providing such links. But they are not what I expected. I wish better. I thought different music have different frequency, so if they compare to the songs on their big song library, It may be nothing. I mean that will be way way simple at all. I am wondering that I hate cross plateform incompatibility these days. even Android phone or iphone sucks. What kind of tech, this is 2017. I hate….

Thank you very much that helped a lot …

Minasti_75 years ago

Wow thanks to this post I discovered that musixmatch have a feature to indentify songs ♥

fantastic! AudioTag did it for me to figure out one piece of music from the movie Solace: M83 – My Tears Are Becoming A Sea). Thumps up! :-)

Siavash5 years ago

Very useful info….thank you ray….

Goog article Ray. Do you know if there’s a search engine for very short sound clips?

m-oomar12 years ago

great post raymond. you are the best.

thanks a lot

sunkumarspace12 years ago

nice cool information

Nice article I’m thankful that I’ve found it..

tartooob12 years ago

Excellent post, really needed this long time ago

Yap the kind of information I was looking for it especially for karaoke type applications. Thank you again Raymond.

billy1312 years ago

Thanks Ray

Thanks Ray. Very useful and it really works :-)