I would never have thought that one button on my mobile would ever bring me so much joy, until I used Midomi SoundHound. It’s not just any button, it’s a big orange one that searches and recognizes songs purely based on listening to the song through your Nokia Symbian device!  Simply press the button when music is being played on the radio, TV, or anywhere else you hear music, and then wait – briefly – in anticipation of that orange dial ticking  around and searching for your song. About 20 seconds later, it will have found it!

The orange button sits on the front screen which is pleasantly designed, with no clutter and a very simple and logical interface. Underneath the orange Music ID search button is a traditional Text Searchbar that is expectedly efficient in searching for songs. However, I doubt anyone would you this much, as you will be too busy having fun using the orange Music ID button instead – And of  course, this is what distinguishes this app from others out there.

My vocal chords are as bad as they could possibly be, so I didn’t find the ‘sing/hum/’ way to search too effective, and it’s perhaps more of a way of marketing this fun app. However, I would like to think that someone with a more refined singing voice will have better success with this than I did, and I would be keen to hear how people get on. Though having said that, it didn’t bother me one bit, as the sound recognition itself timelessly left me impressed, and took nothing away from this app.

As you conduct your searches, there is a ‘history’ button on the front page also, that logs all the stuff you have searched for and found.

Once you have found your song, you can play a snippet of the song and then continue to purchase it via Ovi Music through the quick link. You can also explore a multitude of other options including, watching the song on YouTube, Sharing the song via email, (you need to set up a Mailbox first), and View the Album and Artist information. I found The Artist Information particularly useful, as it gives you an interesting bio on the Artist, and lists other songs/albums available from the same artist.

Not only did I find this app useful to find the name of songs I heard on the radio I didn’t know the name of, but it is also became a game for me, as I spent hrs on YouTube  trying to ‘challenge’ the app in finding songs it couldn’t recognize – but there weren’t many at all!  I tried songs from all sorts of genres and also from different languages but the success rate remained truly immense throughout, and left me more and more impressed.  (You can add songs to the Midomi database if it can’t find it).

Although the Music ID functionality is very responsive – be fair with it and make sure the sound is clear and loud enough to give it the best chance of finding the song. Also, try to capture it over a main part of the song and wait for the dial to tick all the way round (20secs), rather than using the ‘tap when done’ functionality.

This short video demo also provides a nice look at the app in action:

With 60% off, Midomi SoundHound is a superb piece of innovation by Melodis Corp to get your hands on for only £1.50 in Ovi Store.

Editor’s Note: It is with great pleasure that we welcome a new writer, Momin Hashmee, to the Ovi Daily App crew. Momin joins Forum Nokia after completing various marketing assignments at BSkyB, Microsoft and Intel. He loves all things creative, and privately enjoys painting, drawing and graphic design. He lives in Bromley, Kent, but originally comes from Bristol in the South West of England, and is quintessentially British! He has two young children under the age of 3, both a girl and boy, and even with a third child on the way, spends most of his time busy with his cars. He also loves cricket and follows it passionately and trains whenever he gets the chance. He tries to go to the gym as much as possible but more often than not can be found surfing the web or playing with apps on his phone!