[hideo]

Why are there so few Shazam alternatives? Does it have something to do with licensing perhaps? The algorithm itself is fascinating but I don't get why this space seems to have just one player - i.e. Shazam

[tialaramex]

Where's the value? My Android phone just does this locally, obviously Shazam has more storage and so they're going to handle more obscure stuff that way, but for example I just set my "Power of Love" playlist running, and the Pixel's built in "Now Playing" knows both the Frankie Goes To Hollywood track and the Huey Lewis number from Back to the Future.

When a "phone" was a dumb device just barely capable of implementing GSM and displaying a clock then this might be worth something as a business, but given where the $0 baseline is, I don't see enough margin to justify competition, I'm surprised even Shazam still makes commercial sense.

[TerrifiedMouse]

> I'm surprised even Shazam still makes commercial sense.

Isn’t Shazam owned by Apple now? It doesn’t need to make “financial sense” if it’s a service Apple runs.

[jdadj]

SoundHound is a credible alternative.

[klipt]

SoundHound it's actually much more impressive because it can recognize hummed or whistled songs too!

[neop1x]

I used to use SoundHound originally, but their Android app became so bloated that it took a long time to start it. As a result, I switched to Shazam and have not used SoundHound since.

[pxeger1]

It definitely has more than one player. Google Assistant has had this ability for a while, for example. But Shazam has the advantage of being built in to iOS, which might be why you think it’s the only player

[al_borland]

I was a SoundHound user for a long time. It came out around the same time as Shazam. Shazam had all the brand recognition, but I typically went for the underdog.

Recently, in an effort to simply things, I moved over to Shazam. It’s owned by Apple now, so it’s already built into the iPhone, even without the app. The app allows for saving things a bit easier and I find it to be a lot cleaner than the SoundHound app.

[forgotpwd16]

Besides potential licese issues (that may not exist), legally creating the hashes database is a big effort as access to an near-all-encompassing song library is required.

[jldugger]

My understanding is that there is a patent holder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shazam_(application)#Patent_in... in the US.

[willseth]

They have a patent, which IIRC should be expiring fairly soon (the original patent anyway)

[ronsor]

I'm pretty sure it expired a few years ago now.

[Thaxll]

I remember a while back 10 years? On HN someone did a poc ( code ) of Shazamn like and he was sued or asked to remove everything.