Don't they look young
We’ve all done it: Wasted far too much time on Google trying (unsuccessfully) to figure out the artist and name of a random song you heard and liked.
Enter Audiggle. The Cambridge-based startup has a free desktop app (because, you know, not everyone in the world has an iPhone with Shazam) that can recognize any music playing. That includes YouTube clips and any other streaming video, internet radio, and television – even if the song is only barely audible in the background. The app is currently only for PCs, but they’ve got a Mac version in the works.
I got a couple of error messages and had to fiddle with the settings, but the entire thing took less than five minutes to install. I tested it on a YouTube Sex and the City 2 trailer , where it correctly identified – above Carrie and co’s chatter – Jay Z’s “Empire State of Mind,” Ricki-Lee’s “Can’t Touch It,” and of course, the Sex and the City theme, which I guess I wasn’t enough of a diehard fan to know was played by the Pfeifer Broz Orchestra. The app also correctly identified a very poor quality version of Bono and Wyclef Jean singing “Redemption Song” I recorded on my Dictaphone at the Monaco Grand Prix Ball in 2006 – and a Brendan Benson clip I’d mislabelled.
The app instantly also provides lyrics, details on the artist’s upcoming concerts nearby (if there are any), plus of course, a link to buy the song. Looks like I’ll have to find a new way to procrastinate.
