Shazam and SoundHound have been vying to meet your music identifying needs on the iPhone for quite some time, and now they are bringing the fight to the iPad. Both companies, however, are taking different approaches.
Shazam for iPad features an optimized interface that provides you with easy access to your recently tagged music, top charts, the ability to find similar songs, download songs from iTunes, watch YouTube videos, share your tags on Twitter or Facebook, and the works.
Recently tagged music and top charts appear on the left-hand side of the screen (you can toggle between the two via buttons at the top), and the large space to the right is reserved for supplying more in-depth information. A third panel to the far right is reserved for even further functionality.
Shazam took the iPad-only approach with their app instead of making their iPhone apps universal. The kicker with the
Shazam for iPad app is that not only is it free, but it also provides you with unlimited tags, which is rather surprising considering the approach the company took with the iPhone versions of their apps. But hey, we're not complaining.
SoundHound's iPad interface provides you with easy access to recently tagged music, top charts, your music library, song information and lyrics, recommendations, and the ability to search for music.
SoundHound's iPad interface is laid out a bit differently than Shazam's, with most of the important functions and features placed on the left-hand side and the entire right-hand side supplies all of your information. They were able to fit everything into two panels instead of three like Shazam.
SoundHound, unlike Shazam for iPad, is a universal app. An update is available for all current users and the compatibility list now includes iPad.
SoundHound is still priced at $4.99, but current owners should be getting the iPad interface for free.
Depending on which app you already own on your iPhone, the decision probably won't be that difficult for your iPad. That is unless you prefer one interface over the other.
