Name That Tune may have been synonymous with lame game show television back in the 50s, but fast-forward over a half-century later and the term has taken on an entirely new meaning.
Apple's iPhone has changed all that, and the concept of naming that tune will never be the same.
Just hold your iPhone up to a source of music and watch as it magically returns the title of the song, artist, album, and even direct links to purchase the song from iTunes or watch the video in YouTube.
What's even better?
Two such apps are available in the App Store for consumption, and at the amenable price-tag of FREE.
Today we've pinned them in a head-to-head competition to see which one deserves a spot on your iPhone, it's Shazam vs. Midomi Mobile.
While both Shazam and Midomi identify the songs being played around you, both application can boast about key advantages:
Shazam Advantages
• More reliable than Midomi for identifying the songs you hear
• Works well even in low volume settings (much louder volume needed for Midomi)
• Does not suffer from Server Busy error that plagues Midomi
• Retains "tags" of all the songs you identified, making it easy to look through them later to make purchasing decisions
Midomi Advantages
• Once a song is identified, you can click to hear a short sample to confirm it was the correct song
• You can sing or a hum a song yourself and it will do a pretty good job of identifying it for you
• You can also say a song title or type in the title to get the full information about the song
Shazam is a one trick pony but boy does it perform that trick well. In our head-to-head video, you saw Shazam was a lot more reliable and faster than Midomi. It should definitely be your application of choice for identifying songs currently being played whether on the radio or in a store while shopping. The fact that it saves your tags for you to view later also makes this a great utility. I can't even imagine the number of times I texted myself the names of songs while I was driving to make sure I don't forget to download them later. I, and the hundreds of drivers I interact with on a daily basis, will thank shazam for making those days history.
While Shazam is highly recommended, I can't discount Midomi, as it still deserves a spot on anyone's iPhone. Midomi is a lot of fun, and the fact that it can take my terribly singing and recognize the actual song is downright amazing. This tool comes in handy when the song is not playing right now, but is stuck in your head playing over and over and over. Shazam has no way to help you in this situation and you have to wait for the next time you hear the real version. So even though Shazam was the clear cut winner for identifying the song currently playing, the other cool features of Midomi also make it a must-have for the forgetful music lover in all of us.
