Shazam for Mac

Quick summary

Shazam is a free music identification tool that can tell you the title and artist of a song playing near your Mac. The newest macOS build can run in the background for a limited stretch of time and automatically capture audio from your computer’s speakers, removing the need to manually trigger a listen every time.

What Shazam does on macOS

When installed, Shazam places a compact icon in your menu bar and remains mostly hands-free. After launching, it monitors the audio environment and attempts to match any detected music to its catalog. Identified tracks are shown with artist, album and additional information, and you can follow links to purchase or stream the track.

How the identification process works

• The Mac app runs silently and continuously for up to about five hours before it needs you to reset its background timer.
• While active it samples sounds and compares them to Shazam’s database to find matches.
• Only audio that produces a successful match is retained; other captured snippets are discarded according to the company’s stated privacy policy.

Alerts and content access

Shazam notifies you via a small pop-up notification in the corner of the screen when it finds a song. Clicking the notification opens the track’s details page inside the app, where you can view lyrics, watch music videos, or follow a link to purchase the song on iTunes (or open it with supported streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music).

History and retrievable matches

All successful identifications are saved to a history screen inside the app. If you miss the instant notification, open the app’s menu and browse the saved list to revisit previously recognized songs, view more details, or play the sample again.

Privacy and data retention

Shazam’s macOS release includes a privacy explanation that clarifies what is recorded and kept. The stated approach is to only store audio that results in a database match; other captured audio is discarded. This is intended to limit what the app retains while it operates in background mode.

Customization and notifications

• You can disable pop-up alerts if you don’t want interruptions while working.
• There is an option to have Shazam launch automatically when you sign into macOS.
• The app displays social icons for Twitter and Facebook; these are currently limited to indicating that you use the Shazam app rather than directly sharing exact track or playlist metadata from within the app.

Cost and compatible services

Shazam is free to download and use. It detects songs playing in the environment as well as audio from other apps (for example, short clips that play in social apps). Identified tracks can be linked to a variety of music services for listening or purchasing.

Other apps to consider

• Tunatic — a desktop tool that can identify music directly from your PC’s microphone.
• VirtualDJ — an alternative for music discovery and mixing, often recommended for DJs and hobbyists.

Final note

If you’ve ever wanted to quickly identify a tune playing nearby, the Mac edition of Shazam simplifies the process by running unobtrusively in the background and collecting matches automatically. Open the app whenever you want to review what it has discovered and play or purchase the tracks that caught your interest.