Finding out the name of a song is easier if you recognize the artist or know something about the song. The best and quickest resource can be a friend who is a music buff or music historian. If your friend does not produce the answer, you can turn to software, such as Tunatic, designed to identify songs. If the song title is still unknown, you may have to do your own deep investigating, using discography books.
Instructions
1. Write down as many of the lyrics as you know or remember from the song, although a song does not need to have lyrics to determine the title. Write a description of the song as well. These words become keywords that you can use in search engines and media library sites, particularly YouTube. There are many websites on the Internet that provide song lyrics, such as SongLyrics.com, that may be helpful in matching lyrics with titles. Even knowing just a few lyrics that are not in the title can be used in search engines that may produce links to webpages that reveal the song title.
2. Ask a musicologist if he knows the song based on the information you have written down. There are many musicologists whose careers involve being familiar with a lot of songs. These people work in places such as radio stations, music stores and music libraries. There are also music research firms that track song information, so it is possible one of these sources can provide the answer even more quickly than downloading software.
3. Check the data included with the digital media (CD, file) that delivers the song, if you have a copy. Even if an mp3 file isn't named after the song, chances are the information is embedded in the file, especially if it is a modern professional recording. Most popular CDs have now been encoded by a San Francisco Bay Area company called Grace Note with data about the artist, song title and other song information. A digital jukebox such as iTunes will list the tracks and song titles in order when a CD is inserted. In iTunes, if you highlight the song, then click "File" and "Get Info," you can find out more information about the song, including the album it is from, the year the song was released, the record label and other facts.
4. Go to Tunatic.com and download Tunatic, a freeware program for Mac or Windows designed to identify songs based on its music database. Plug a microphone into a computer with Internet access and let Tunatic "hear" the song. Many Macs have a built-in microphone which you can find by going to "System Preferences" and clicking "Sound/Input." In some cases, a mic is not necessary if the song is already on your computer. Tunatic also can detect songs from a radio stream. Look for song links by following the white arrow. By clicking the search button, song data is transmitted to the Tunatic database, which finds and delivers a matching song.
5. Use song discography books if you still haven't found the answer. Comprehensive books by M.C. Strong and Joel Whitburn provide many lists of songs. M.C. Strong's "The Great Rock Discography" is a phone-book-sized resource book that lists thousands of songs in the rock genre. This book helps if the unknown song is a popular rock song and you have some idea who the artist is. Joel Whitburn books are based on the Billboard charts and include indexes of alphabetized song titles. These books help if you know the era or genre of the song. Many Whitburn books list the top songs of each year for the past century.
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