How to track down songs from TV, adverts, films… even pubs!

How to track down songs from TV, adverts, films... even pubs!

How to track down songs from TV, adverts, films... even pubs!I love discovering new music and often go to great lengths in my geekery to get it.

However, one thing that used to drive me crazy was hearing a catchy piece of music playing on a TV advert or in a pub – and not knowing what it was.

I have a couple friends with encyclopedic music memories who’ve occasionally been able to help out in the pub scenario, but they’re not with me 24/7 – or rather I’m not in the pub 24/7.

So what’s the answer? I mean you can’t exactly walk into HMV and hum something you heard two days ago and expect them to know what it is. (Certainly not if you’re got my humming ability).

Thanks to some clever technology these days the answer is often at your fingertips. Here are 2 simple ways to track down those elusive songs.

1) Download the ‘Shazam’ app (Recommended) – You’ll need a smartphone for this: iPhone, Android, Blackberry or Windows.

This really is like magic. You literally just open up the app and press the big black logo in the middle when the music is playing and it’ll listen and match the song.

If you’ve got Internet reception it’ll do it on the spot if not it’ll save the recording in it’s memory and you can ask it to ‘tag it’ (find the track) later on when you are online. I use this all the time and I think it’s one of the cleverest Smartphone apps I’ve come across.

You can get it here: Shazam.

2) Search online using these free music ‘guru’ websites – Maybe you don’t have a smart phone or tablet device or maybe you prefer using the Internet?

If you can remember where you heard the song you can often find the answer on one of these sites:

Tune Find – This site lists tracks featured from popular TV series and films and has a handy search facility. Often specific scenes will be described by users to help you locate the right music.

What’s that called? – This is a forum that covers adverts, trailers, films, TV and lots more. There’s a black search box (fairly well hidden if you don’t know it’s there) on the top right of the page.

TV Ad Music – This is another UK based website which helps you locate some of the more popular tracks. There’s a handy ‘request’ facility as well as a search facility.

Happy music hunting!

If you’ve used these (or any other websites, apps or music services) or if you found this article helpful please leave a comment below.

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