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Concept
Search by sound
Summary
Search by sound is the retrieval of information based on audio input. There are a handful of applications, specifically for mobile devices that utilize search by sound. Shazam (service), Soundhound (previously Midomi), Axwave, ACRCloud and others have seen considerable success by using a simple algorithm to match an acoustic fingerprint to a song in a library. These applications take a sample clip of a song, or a user-generated melody and check a music library/music database to see where the clip matches with the song. From there, song information will be queried and displayed to the user.
These kind of applications are mainly used for finding a song that the user does not already know. Searching by sound is not limited to just identifying songs, but also for identifying melodies, tunes or advertisements, sound library management and .
The way these apps search by sound is through generating an acoustic fingerprint; a digital summary of the sound. A microphone is used to pick up an audio sample, which is then broken down into a simple numeric signature, a code unique to each track. Using the same method of fingerprinting sounds, when Shazam picks up a sound clip, it will generate a signature for that clip. Then it’s simple pattern matching from there using an extensive audio music database.
The practice of using acoustic fingerprints is not limited to just music, however, but other areas of the entertainment business as well. Shazam also can identify television shows with the same technique of acoustic fingerprinting. Of course, this method of breaking down a sound sample into a unique signature is useless unless there is an extensive database of music with keys to match with the samples. Shazam has over 11 million songs in its database.
Other services such as Midomi and Soundhound allow users to add to that library of music in order to expand the chances to match a sound sample with its corresponding sound.
Midomi and Soundhound both offer query by humming. This is a branch off of acoustic fingerprints but is still a musical retrieval system.
Official source
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Related concepts (2)
Shazam (application)
Shazam is an application that can identify music, movies, advertising, and television shows, based on a short sample played and using the microphone on the device. It was created by London-based Shazam Entertainment, and has been owned by Apple Inc. since 2018. The software is available for Android, macOS, iOS, Wear OS, watchOS and as a Google Chrome extension. The original UK developer of the app, Shazam Entertainment Limited, was founded in 1999 by Chris Barton, Philip Inghelbrecht, Avery Wang, and Dhiraj Mukherjee.
Music information retrieval
Music information retrieval (MIR) is the interdisciplinary science of retrieving information from music. Those involved in MIR may have a background in academic musicology, psychoacoustics, psychology, signal processing, informatics, machine learning, optical music recognition, computational intelligence or some combination of these. MIR is being used by businesses and academics to categorize, manipulate and even create music.