This is the new function that YouTube Music has incorporated to offer its users: Search and identify a song just by humming. Yes, you are thinking or same: that's exactly what the popular app does Shazam. And that is the market in which the YouTube music streaming platform wants to fish.
For now, this will only be possible in the Android version of YouTube Music, although if everything goes as planned it will definitely be incorporated as another native function. Furthermore, it is accessible to anyone, because Who doesn't know how to hum or sing? You know, what the RAE defines as "sing under your breath and without saying a word". Well that.
Furthermore, it will also serve us simply singing or whistling the melody. Or playing a recording. That's how versatile this new feature is.
Although this year 2024 YouTube Music has already surpassed the barrier of 100 million subscribers (a figure that also includes trial versions), it actually aspires to much more: attract more users, without losing those it has already achieved. In fact, it is still below the statistics of its main competitors: Spotify, Apple Music y AmazonMusic.
This is how YouTube Music's "hum" function works
This new YouTube Music feature, which puts it on par with its rivals, is available to both paid and free users. The only requirement is to have an Android device. It is expected that later this possibility will be expanded to users who have an iPhone or an iPad, although for now this is the case.
To use YouTube Music's hum feature as a song identifier, here are the steps to follow:
- First of all, you have to access the platform and click on the magnifying glass icon, through which the search page opens.
- There, next to the voice search function, a new button now appears «Song» in the upper right corner of the screen.
- When selected, the following text is displayed on the screen: "Play, sing or hum a song."
- After recording our humming, the app will take a few minutes to analyze it and compare it to the contents of its database before offer us the result.
How accurate is this tool? It must be recognized that, at least for now, the results can be improved. Those who have already had the opportunity to test this function have encountered all kinds of situations. In some cases, it was enough to hum a little to find the song, although other times there have been notable errors. It is to be hoped that these errors will be gradually corrected.
It is also fair to recognize that not everyone has sufficient hearing or the necessary skill to hum or sing a song and for others (humans or artificial intelligences) to understand the message. That is already more difficult to solve.
An alternative method: Google Searches
Those who do not have YouTube Music or use it from an iOS device and, therefore, cannot access this tool, have a pretty good alternative. At least until the humming feature to identify songs is accessible. We refer to the Google search app.
This comes installed by default on Android, although it can also be installed on iOS for free. This is how we can use it:
- To start, we open the Google application.
- Then we click on the search icon by voice that is displayed right next to the search engine.
- There we select the "Search song" option located at the bottom of the screen.
- This is when we proceed to sing, play or hum a song.
- The response comes in a matter of a few seconds, the app detects the song and shows us a page of Google results with its name.
Again, The reliability or success of this method depends largely on our interpretive abilities.. If we are not able to sing the bars of a song in a minimally acceptable way, we cannot expect the tool to work miracles.
About YouTube Music
YouTube Music (YTM) is the streaming music platform that arrived in 2020 for replace Google Play Music. Your service includes a free option and the option YouTube Music Premium.
Many users wonder if is it worth paying for the premium subscription (its current price is 9,99 euros per month or 99,99 euros per year; there is also a family plan for 14,99 euros per month), which is a very personal decision. However, it is fair to point out the interesting advantages that it offers. These are the most notable:
- Listen to music no advertising.
- Activate the “audio only” mode, that is, without image playback.
- song download No internet connection.
- Listen to music in the background while using other applications.
To all this, we must now add the new function of identifying songs simply by humming them. Like in Shazam. It can be something really interesting, right?