Using the Shazam app, I can hold my phone up un a crowded bar, and it’s able to identify the song that’s playing. However, if I rip a song from a CD (and provide all the meta data), Apple’s iTunes Match frequently isn’t able to identify it.
I understand why Apple doesn’t use just the meta data to identify a song; otherwise people would rename one song over and over to add music they don’t own to their library. I would think that knowing what the song probably is would make the algorithm practically flawless, however, my experience shows that isn’t the case.
Why can Shazam recognize a song in an imperfect environment but Apple’s iTunes Match frequently can’t with a version ripped from a CD?
[I’m not talking about obscure songs that may not have a digital fingerprint in Apple’s database.]
WAG: Apple’s iTunes Match is much more concerned about avoiding “false positives” and distinguishing between a particular recording and alternate versions, covers, excerpts, samples, etc.
I have both apps on my phone, and in my experience if one can’t find it, neither can the other one. And SoundHound takes far longer to start than Shazam. Long enough that frequently the song is finished before it’s loaded.
Maybe that’s your phone? I have them both as well and they each take 5-6 seconds to launch. I’d like to default to Shazam since it’s connected to the music service I use, but SoundHound still finds music for me if Shazam doesn’t. Weird. Sorry I have no insight to the OP’s problem, I happily deleted crapple software from my stuff years ago.
According to this article, they both work essentially the same way: acoustic fingerprinting. Basically it records a sample, maybe a few, and compares them against a database. Explains why it takes so freakin’ long for Match to scan your music library.
Apple Music, OTOH works just on metadata. The service gives full access to Apple’s entire music catalog, so I’d imagine they’re not as concerned with users “fooling” it with “fake” songs.
Yeah, it’s just a difference in consequences. Apple doesn’t want to give you the wrong song, nor does it want you to be able to use a recording at a bar to get a free song. Shazam wants to give you an answer even if it’s not too sure, and is specifically designed to work with low quality recorded audio.
I don’t use SoundHound but I can say Shazam is ridiculously fast. Fast enough that if SoundHound is faster it won’t amount to much.
I used Shazam in ideal conditions at home (WiFi, no background noise, phone a foot away from the speaker) and I doubt Shazam listened for two seconds before getting a hit.
I assume it slows down in more adverse conditions.
I use SoundHound, and I’m constantly astounded at how well it works. I’ve been in bars where I could barely even make out the music, and it’s been able to find a match for me.
I just tested it on my phone (iPhone SE), and it took less than 2 seconds for SoundHound to open. The biggest time sink for me in launching that app is trying to remember and figuring out on which screen the app is located.
Well, to be fair, Shazam is a real genie too. I even saw a movie about him when I was growing up in the 90s. I think it starred the guy from Jingle All the Way