Your face is scrunched up in total concentration, and you're pulling the melody from the back dregs of your brain. Surrounding you are a gaggle of your friends, equally rapt, as they are the ones who will be doing the guessing. How does that song go again? You're uncertain. But you have snatches of a melody to guide you. You're a little off-key as you try and recall where you had heard the song. Did it float alongside you as you drove down the highway, or did your ears perk up in a bar? You're humming, and you're... on the right track. You spit out a couple of jumbled notes, and there's silence in wait of the group consensus. And drumroll... no one has a clue what you're on about. Not a soul. Been there? Good. So've we.
But now, we'll refer to it nostalgically as a figment of the past. YouTube has successfully launched their 'hum-to-search' program on YouTube music, and from what we understand, it will be revolutionary.
How does 'Hum-to-search' work?
On the search bar on YouTube Music, users will be able to locate a new waveform icon. When tapped, the app will start listening and decrypting the song being hummed, sung or whistled. The feature can also identify a track that is played live on an instrument.
Once the song has been tracked, YouTube draws up the song accompanied with details regarding the artist, cover art and year it was released. Hum-to-search, while pulling from a music library of over 100 million, has not always been accurate. Online, the success rates have been mixed. Reports of most popular songs tracked well with the app's accuracy, while more obscure ditties were often misidentified.
Eagle-eyed tech experts also identified that this tool, while new to YouTube and quicker than its competitors, has existed on Google Assistant for years. iPhone users haven't been left in the dust either. Humming to search is also in its testing stage for IoS, as the app exists on Android-backed YouTube.
For those who are keen on testing it out, subscribe to YouTube Music in order to access the feature. Hum to try before you buy.
