SoundHound ∞ may be the more expensive of the two, but the feature set makes up for the price, for the most part. The application is also a universal binary, so it is available on both your iPhone or iPad. There is also a free version available if you would rather give the app a try before purchasing the full version.
The first thing you'll see when you launch SoundHound. The button to launch the identifier is a bit small compared to the full screen of Shazam.[/caption]
Once the app is launched, the main screen is divided into two sections: the top half will have the “What’s That Song?” button, and the bottom will have scrolling section of promoted content on SoundHound, containing stuff like “Most Shared Song,” “Most Tweeted Song,” “Free Song Download from iTunes,” “Today’s Hottest Songs,” and even recommendations based on your history of searches. I wasn’t too fond of these, since they almost feel like advertisements.
To utilize SoundHound for a search of a song, you can tap on the button and it will listen for playing music. Now, the best part about SoundHound is that it isn’t restrictive to just what’s being played at the moment. The app can also work with melodies that you hum or sing, as long as you can do it for around 10 seconds. This is great when you have a jingle stuck in your head all day, end up humming out aloud, but have no clue what it’s called or who it is by.
Another bonus of SoundHound is the fact that it has a setting to automatically listen for a song the moment it is launched. When it is trying to find a match for a song, it doesn’t take long — like Shazam, it should only be a few seconds. You are able to see the progress of the matching in the small space dedicated to the button.
However, it seems that SoundHound must be very close to the source of music, and there can’t be much background noise in order to identify it. I tried using it at Starbucks quite a few times (the music was at low and high volume levels with many people talking), and it was never able to find a match for the songs that played, even though Shazam Encore got multiple matches. If I used the app in the car or next to a speaker, then I will have no problem, unless there are connection issues.
The identified song view.
However, if you are able to get a successful tag from SoundHound, you are able to see the name of the song, the album it’s from (along with album art), and the artist name. There will be links to purchase the song on iTunes, in case you feel like (legally) owning it.
You can share your song with a comment on Facebook or Twitter, or you can send it by email or SMS. Lyrics are also available, and they can actually scroll along with the song if it is still playing. Several of the most popular videos on YouTube will be displayed, though you can view more if you tap on the section.
If you are a Spotify premium subscriber, then you can open the app with that song, which is expedient. SoundHound can also deliver recommended songs to you based on the identified artist, as well as other little tidbits regarding it.
View what's hot and popular on the charts.
SoundHound has other features as well, such as the Charts feature. Here, you are able to see what the hottest songs are, discoveries, most tweeted, just found by fans, and some of SoundHound’s own tweets. You can also search for a song, artist, album, or even lyrics by typing or using the voice dictation feature. Be careful though, as the app doesn’t translate some words accurately (Muse sounds like news).
Use your voice to search SoundHound
If you have playlists on your device, then you are able to play your music directly through the SoundHound app as well. It is nice to see the lyrics for the song displayed, and the app even scrolls through the lyrics as it plays. This is a feature that is pretty convenient to have, but personally, not a necessity. I believe it is more for the people that don’t really want to use two separate apps to identify and play music.
You can follow along with your favorite songs with the music player in SoundHound.
One of my favorite features of SoundHound is how the display album artwork, regardless if you are looking at the charts or tagging songs. The app will display the artwork so that it blends in the background, and you are able to see relevant information displayed on top of it. In some ways, I prefer the interface of SoundHound to that of Shazam, because it isn’t as plain.
There are also a few more customization options to SoundHound when compared with the competition. You can enable shake-to-search, use Bluetooth, store your history and bookmarks in iCloud, and even auto-share your newly discovered tunes to Facebook or Twitter.
Having some issues with SoundHound?
While SoundHound has been a great app over the years, I’ve been having a few problems with it during my use in the past few days. This makes it harder to fully recommend the app.