Shazam is without a doubt the most popular and widely used music identification apps on the market right now, with hundreds of millions is users and rave reviews across multiple platforms.

However, while Shazam has a strong hold over the music identification market, there are certain apps which are looking to take its throne.

Here, we take a look at some of these challengers.

SoundHound: Hands-Free Music Playing and Searches at Its Peak

To be honest, any list that contains the top alternatives to Shazam is incomplete without having SoundHound on it. As a matter of fact, the rivalry between Shazam and SoundHound is like that between Michael Jordan and Lebron James. We can argue about which is better, but that argument will most likely be settled without a major conclusion.

SoundHound provides the ability to go hands-free and simply say, “OK, Hound. What is this song?” That alone will trigger the app to recognize the song for you.

Also, with SoundHound, you can simply tap n the orange button to see songs, get live lyrics, play the video (if the song has one, anyways) share the song, have it streamed, or you can purchase the song as well.

You can ask SoundHound questions like, “What is the latest song from The Weekend?” and if you have a song stuck in your head, you can hum it to.

Remember; all of this can be done hands-free.

With SoundHound, you can add songs to streaming services like Spotify, and you can also get open to a wider pool of tracks and artists. The app provides feature songs, charts, videos, new artists, biographies, latest charts, and much more.

Siri and Google Assistant: Old, But Gold

The argument can be made for the fact that these aren’t apps. However, music identification can also be done by the use of good old digital assistants. Their reliability rests on the fact that they don’t require the installation of other apps to function.

To make use of your digital assistant, all you have to do is wake it up (however way you do that) and say something like, “What song is playing?” From there, the assistant launches a search and comes up with the song’s name.

Siri and Google assistant have definitely provided some awesome results, so these can definitely be put to good use if you don’t want to install any separate apps for music identification.

Genius: Much More Than Just Song Lyrics

Genius is another app for song identification that has gotten a lot of buzz lately, and it’s well deserved. Apart from just providing track identification features, Genius will also get a song and show its lyrics as well as the track’s official video (again, if the video is available).

As soon as you are able to identify a song, you can choose to share it to other music-related apps or if you want to play it directly on your phone with apps like Deezer, Spotify and Apple Music.

Also, you can maintain your account on the Genius platform easily. From the app, you can interact with other users and people with the same taste in music as yourself. You can use the app to share your discoveries or get to know about these tracks and albums that have been released by your favorite artists.

In addition to all of that, Genius can help you to check out the latest tracks in various genres and have the played directly on any app you choose.

Soly: Andriod-Based Music Identification App

It might only be available for Android but there is no doubt to the fact that Soly is one of the best Shazam alternatives in the market right now.

The app has a seamless and intuitive interface, and the “Identify” option helps you perform a quick search on a song. Soly is connected to the ACRCloud database, and this is the app’s source for finding songs.

Also, when Soly identifies a song it provides an option to listen to it on YouTube or share it with you finds through a wide selection of third-party apps. There are also options such as “Lyrics finder” and “Lyrics generator,” but Soly’s song identification feature is definitely the highlight of the entire app.

However, while Soly is definitely a top-notch music identification app, one caveat is that you might have to put up with a lot of app while making use of it. Still, if you can manage that, you’ll love this app for sure.

Musixmatch: Lyrics on the Go

If there is any app that can rival Genius and Shazam on the lyrics parameter, then it definitely has to be Musixmatch. Although the app is a music player by definition, it is also capable of identifying music and providing various other features.

However, don’t get it twisted; the major function of Musixmatch is definitely providing lyrics. To wit, the app boasts one of the largest databases of music in the world.

If you will like to identify your music on Musixmatch, all you have to do is tap on “Identify lyrics,” and the app will go on to search for the song for you. Musixmatch provides fast music identification services, and it also goes on to search for the live lyrics of a song that you are listening to.

In addition to all of this, Musixmatch allows you to create LyricCards and look into the biographies of artists, while you also have access to the latest and most highly-rated tracks.

MusicID: The Name Says It All

MusicID is another music identification app in the market today that is working very hard to ensure that Shazam becomes obsolete. The app provides a very fast song identification process, and you only need to tap on the large microphone button for the process to get initialized. As soon as the app is able to get the song, it provides all relevant information including the song’s details, and other similar sons- both by the same artist and other artists in the same genre that might be related in one way or the other.

MusicID is another music identification app in the market today that is working very hard to ensure that Shazam becomes obsolete. The app provides a very fast song identification process, and you only need to tap on the large microphone button for the process to get initialized. As soon as the app is able to get the song, it provides all relevant information including the song’s details, and other similar sons- both by the same artist and other artists in the same genre that might be related in one way or the other.

With MusicID, you will also be able to get a song directly through iTunes, and you can immediately share the song with your circle of friends. MusicID’s app interface has also been touted for being very seamless, and it has the right combination of features to offer a user.