How to find what song is playing in a video

The short answer

To name a song, play the part of the video with the clearest music and let a music-recognition app listen. On Apple devices that's built in: Shazam's Music Recognition can sit in Control Center or the Mac menu bar, and Siri can use it too. To find where music appears across a folder of your own videos, or which clips reuse the same track, you need a tool that indexes the audio of your library, which is what MediaFind's music search does on-device.

Naming the song: free options

Recognition services compare a short audio fingerprint against a large catalog of commercial recordings. That lookup happens on the service's servers, so a sample of the audio leaves your device, it needs an internet connection, and it only knows tracks in its catalog.

• Apple devices. Apple's support page describes adding Recognize Music to Control Center on iPhone and iPad, or to the menu bar on a Mac, and asking Siri "what is this song?". Siri uses Shazam's recognition, so the Shazam app isn't required.
• The Shazam app. Available for iPhone, iPad and Android. Hold your phone near the speaker while the video plays.
• Search the lyrics. If you can make out a distinctive line, typing it in quotes into a search engine is often faster than any app.
• Check the source. Video descriptions, end credits and a platform's own music label often name the track outright.

Why recognition sometimes fails

Dialogue on top of the music, heavy compression, a live or cover version, a remix, or production music written for a library can all defeat a fingerprint match. Try a stretch where nobody is talking, turn the volume up, and play at least 10 to 15 seconds. If a track is production music, the service may simply not have it; the video's credits or the editor's project files are the better place to look.

How to do it in MediaFind

MediaFind doesn't look up song titles, because that would mean sending your audio to a third-party database. Instead it finds the music in your own library, on your computer:

1. Add the folder of videos or audio you want to search. Indexing runs locally.
2. Choose the Music & songs search mode to list the stretches that are music rather than talking, each linked to the second it starts.
3. Open a result and play from that timestamp to check it.
4. To find other clips that use the same track, look for clips MediaFind has grouped as sharing that music. It compares the music itself, so a different bitrate or container doesn't break the match.
5. Once one clip is identified with a recognition app, you know the name of every clip in its group.

Tips and limitations

• Music detection is tuned to avoid mislabeling speech as music, so a quiet bed under talking can be missed.
• Same-track grouping works on the recordings you have; it can't tell you a song's title, artist or license.
• Combine modes: a natural-language search for the scene plus the music results narrows a long video fast. See searching inside video files.
• For the technical side, read how on-device song detection works and the glossary entry on audio fingerprinting.

A note on rights

Knowing a song's name doesn't give you the right to use it. If you're reusing footage that contains music, for a client video or a public upload, check the license for that recording. The same applies to music caught in the background of event or family footage; see event videographers and YouTubers for how people manage that.

Frequently asked questions

Can I identify a song in a video without an app?

Sometimes. Search a distinctive lyric in quotes, or check the video's description and credits. For instrumental music, a recognition service such as Shazam is usually needed.

Does MediaFind tell me the name of a song?

No. It finds the parts of your videos that contain music and groups clips that share the same track, all on your computer, but it doesn't look up titles online.

Why can't Shazam find the song in my video?

Talking over the music, remixes, live versions and production library music often don't match. Try a stretch with no dialogue and let it listen longer.

If I know the song, can I use it in my own video?

Not automatically. Identifying a track doesn't grant a license. Check who owns the recording and what their terms allow.