TikTok Introduces ‘Sound Search’ to Compete with Shazam, YouTube Music

TikTok is launching a new feature called Sound Search, which lets users find a sound by singing, humming, or playing it. This new tool aims to compete with existing song recognition services like Shazam and YouTube Music. Currently available only to a select group of users in specific regions, Sound Search helps identify sound clips that are currently popular in TikTok trends.

According to a report from TechCrunch, the feature is somewhat similar to YouTube Music’s song detection capabilities, which can identify song names through singing, humming, or playing them. Unlike Shazam, which requires the actual song to be played to recognize it, TikTok’s new tool is more versatile.

TikTok’s Sound Search goes a step further by not just identifying songs but also showing the videos that use these particular sounds. Based on TechCrunch’s testing, the tool performs better with songs or sounds that are already popular on the app. It appears to be less accurate when it comes to less common songs or sounds that haven’t been featured as frequently in TikTok videos.

Even though TikTok states that the tool is designed to find songs and not TikTok-specific sounds, the testing shows otherwise. The tool successfully identifies currently popular sound clips and memes on the platform. Users with access to this feature can find it by navigating to the app’s search bar, clicking the microphone icon, and selecting “Sound Search.”

For users who already rely on TikTok as a search engine, this new tool enhances the app’s search capabilities significantly. Sounds and music are crucial components of TikTok, and this feature will make finding specific songs or sound clips much easier. Previously, searching for songs on TikTok was much less intuitive, making Sound Search a welcome improvement.

It remains unclear when TikTok plans to make Sound Search available to all users. However, given the positive reception and initial success of the tool, its wider rollout seems likely in the near future.

Source: TechCrunch