Cool way to identify music anywhere. SHAZAM !

For all users of smartphones like the iPhone (and newer iPod Touch), Android , Symbian, Blackberry, or Windows Mobile phone, there is an App called SHAZAM.

It turns your phone into a music identifier by listening via the mike, then sends the recorded clip to an Internet database to cross-check the song name and singer.

http://www.shazam.com/

Very useful when u hear a tune over the radio or at some public space and want to know whats playing.

For all you music lovers / audiophiles who are still using black/white monochrome screen handphones .... now's a good reason to upgrade your handphone and use it as a music discovery tool while you're at it.

you can also try sound hound. does the same thing.identify music

I remember there used to be an SMS service by Lite&Easy (literadio) where we can SMS and get the name of the song + artist for whatever song/tune is currently playing. Anyone know if this service still exist and if so, what is the number to SMS to.

I have not tried this SHAZAM thingy because I am too cheep to spend so much on a fancy handphone (different generation, different things floats our boats la). But one thing about identifying a song and singer via digitizing the tune is that a good song is often sung by several different singers/bands. While often we prefer the original singer's version, sometimes a very good song is interpreted by singers each very good in their own way. So the same song can be enjoyed many times in different unique, equally enjoyable way from different artists. To me, this is one of the wonders of music, thus as I mentioned my music teacher taught me, music is like a universal language. The same tune can be sung in many different ways and yet each way can be understood and enjoyed.

A good example would be say "San Nian" (3 years), the wonderful rendition by Lee Hsiang Lan (original singer) and then the reinterpretation by Tsai Chin. "I'll never fall in Love again" has been sung by many different singers with the most bouncy/catch tune by Dionne Warwick. Songs from Broadway or the theatre, e.g. songs from "My Fair Lady", or "Phantom Of The Opera", "Evita", they can be sung by different casts and often each cast brings their unique interpretation to the songs. To me I enjoy each of them in their own right and sometimes I do have all of the different versions.

So an important question before I splurge on that fancy iPhone. Will it be able to correctly identify the different singers from the tune ?

Just had a demo of this App.
This App is coooooooooool.

wongkn, yes.

Amazingly cool when I first saw it this morning.