Shazamvs
SoundHound
SoundHound: If you want a competing recognition app that can also identify hummed or sung melodies without a match in a database
Shazam
Apple-owned song identification app, free with no ads or in-app purchases
As of 1 September 2026, Shazam is free to use. A music recognition app that identifies a playing song from a short audio sample, owned by Apple since a 2018 acquisition. Softwr lists it under Music. Shazam is made by Apple Inc., available on iOS, Android, Web.
Overview
What Shazam does
Shazam listens to a short clip of audio playing nearby and matches it against a large fingerprinted database of recorded music to identify the track, artist and album, then offers to play or save it. It works offline for a queue of tags taken without a connection, syncing identification once back online, and it surfaces charts of trending Shazams by location. Apple acquired Shazam in 2018 for roughly 400 million dollars, and rather than folding the app away, kept it running as a standalone product while integrating it tightly with Apple Music: identified songs can be added directly to an Apple Music library or playlist, and Shazam tags feed Apple's own music trend and discovery data. That makes its business model straightforward to state: it has no revenue of its own, it exists to surface music discovery moments that convert into Apple Music subscriptions and engagement, and it also functions on Android and non-Apple platforms, where the same identification quality is offered without requiring an Apple device. Buyers are anyone wanting to identify a song, and there is effectively no purchase decision or trade-off around cost since the app is entirely free; the only consideration worth noting is that using it deepens Apple ecosystem data and habit even on non-Apple devices, since saved tags and playlists are stored to an Apple ID.
What people use it for
- Someone hearing an unfamiliar song in a shop, cafe or on the radio and wanting to identify it instantly
- A user wanting identified songs automatically saved into an Apple Music library or playlist
- Someone using the offline tagging queue while without signal, resolving matches later
- A listener browsing Shazam trending charts to discover what is being identified most in their city
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Shazam.
- The app has no revenue of its own and exists structurally to drive Apple Music engagement, so its continued investment and feature direction depend entirely on how useful Apple finds it as a funnel rather than on its own standalone business case.
- Identification requires either a live audio sample or a stored recording, and it performs poorly on very quiet, heavily remixed, or non-commercially released audio where no fingerprint match exists in the database.
- Saved tags and playlists are tied to an Apple ID even on Android, meaning non-Apple users still create Apple ecosystem account data by using the app.
- It offers no music playback of its own beyond short previews or an Apple Music handoff, so a non-Apple Music subscriber cannot play a full identified track inside the app itself.
- As an owned subsidiary of Apple rather than an independent company, there is no separate roadmap transparency or company reporting, so its longevity and feature set are subject to Apple's wider strategic priorities rather than its own user base.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Shazam
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
Pricing
What Shazam costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Shazam
Free
- Unlimited song identification
- No ads shown within the identification experience
- No premium tier exists
Capabilities
Features
Audio fingerprint matching
Identifies songs from a short live or recorded audio sample
Offline tagging queue
Captures a song match attempt without a connection and resolves it later
Apple Music integration
One-tap adding of identified songs to an Apple Music library or playlist
Shazam charts
Trending identified songs by city, country or globally
Lyrics display
Synced lyrics shown for many identified tracks
Shazam widget and Control Centre integration
Quick-launch identification from the lock screen or Control Centre on iOS
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is Shazam free?
Yes, fully free with no ads, subscription or in-app purchases.
Do I need Apple Music to use Shazam?
No, identification works without an Apple Music subscription, though full track playback of an identified song requires either Apple Music or another music service.
Who owns Shazam?
Apple, which acquired it in 2018.
Keep looking
Where to go from Shazam
- Shazam alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Shazam pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Shazam badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Music softwareThe full category
- Best Music softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Music software for
Compare Shazam with
- SoundHound
- Studio One
- TuneCore
- rekordbox
- Splice
- BandLab
- CD Baby
- Dorico
- Soundtrap
- REAPER
- Ableton Live
- LANDR
- Suno
- Ardour
- SoundHound
- Splice
- Cubase
- Soundtrap
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11 researched notesGenerative AI service creating full songs with vocals and instrumentation from text
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Free, then $1/mo12 researched notesSong identification app that can match hummed or sung melodies, from SoundHound AI
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Shazam, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
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Best Music software alternatives
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Per user per year
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One-time purchase
Free, open source notation software under the GPL, distinct from the separate paid MuseScore.com and MuseSounds subscriptions
Open source, no licence feeSteinberg’s notation software, still sold as a perpetual licence on desktop with subscription only offered on iPad
One-time purchaseMusic distribution charging an upfront per-release fee plus a permanent 9% commission on royalties, now owned by Universal Music Group
One-time purchase plus ongoing commission