SoundHound for Android OS Review: 'Name That Tune,' But At What Price?

Business model packs a twist

Like other apps in the music recognion genre, SoundHound is designed to automatically identify the song that you play with the use of an online database. You can use SoundHound to recognize songs from CDs, downloaded tunes, and music on the radio, for instance. In addition to giving you the name of the tune and the artist, SoundHound will provide you with the name of the album and the lyrics to the song.

SoundHound comes in two versions: a free, ad supported version, and a paid version -- supposedly with "no ads" -- which costs $5. However, even the paid edition includes "sponsored links" to eBay, Slacker Radio, and concert ticket brokers.

Testing, round one: Recognizing music off the computer

When I tested the app, SoundHound did an excellent job of correctly recognizing music out of my (fairly eclectic) collection, including some obsure original soundtrack items. It only consistently failed to recognize one song: a small-label CD from a fairly unknown artist, put out 12 years ago.

I found, though, that SoundHound might not necessarily recognize a song on its first try. You're likely to get faster and easier recognition during a chorus or another distinctive part of the song, rather than at the very lead-in, which can often sound quite similar to that of other songs. If at first you don't get a match, try again.

Round two: Recognizing music off the radio

You might suspect that recognizing music off the radio would be more difficult than recognizing it off the computer. For one thing, radio music tends to be populated by high numbers of recent songs. For another, recognizing songs off the radio brings in the additional possibilities of faint sound quality and static for mucking up recognition.

As I discovered, there's definitely a threshold of static beyond which SoundHound can no longer recognize a tune. This turns out to be lower than the human ability to identity a song.

However, if you can hear enough of the song for it to really be worth listening to, you'll probably be able to get a match. Just don't count on SoundHound being able to recognize those snippets coming through from a radio station that you can almost listen to, but not quite.

Round three: 'Singing and humming recognition'

As previously noted, SoundHound also claims to boast "the world's only viable singing and humming recognition." Whether or not these claims ring true depends on your definion of "viable," as well as on the quality of your singing voice.

Technically, yes, the "singing recognition" can be made to work. However, in practice, you're probably better off doing a lyrics search unless you're a really good singer. The "humming recognition" feature gives you an even slimmer window for accurate results.

In general, I would categorize the "singing and humming recognition" capability as more of a gimmick than a useful feature.

Privacy is another concern

In another area of concern, one of the permissions SoundHound demands in order to run is access to phone "state identity." These permsissions incude the ability to log your phone number as well as anyone who either calls you or is called by you.

While some other apps really use this kind of phone status information, there doesn't seem to be any reason for SoundHound to ask for it, other than to personally identify users for marketing purposes.

Conclusion

Soundhound does a good job of providing fast, accurate identification of the music you come across. However, I'd feel a lot better about recommending the paid version if it weren't chock full of monetization mechanisms, including some that could go well beyond anonymous advertising.

As things stand, you might be better off using the free version. If you're going to get intruded upon by advertising. anyway, at least you won't have to pay for the privilege.

Pros

• Fast, usually accurate music recognition
• Broad, diverse music database
• Also provides song lyrics

 Cons

• Will not recognize faint or staticky music
• 'Ad free' version includes sponsored links
• Potential privacy concerns