SpotSearch is an app for Spotify Mobile (iPhone and Android) that finds a song on Spotify based on some lyrics you enter. In a way it’s similar to Shazam, but instead of playing it a sample of music you type in some words from the song instead. Maybe you have a tune in your head and you can’t remember what it’s called or who it’s by. If you know a line from the lyrics, use SpotSearch to find and play the song in Spotify.
Using SpotSearch is simple – just start up the app then type in some song lyrics:
Tap Find The Song and SpotSearch will check the line against various different search engines. It then displays the best matches, showing the artist name and song title ranked in order of the number of times they were found (so cover and karaoke versions get pushed down the list):
Now just click a song title to open and play it in Spotify instantly. There are also links to listen/view the song on YouTube, share the song on Facebook or go back and do another search.
SpotSearch is formidably accurate: It’s managed to find pretty much everything I’ve thrown at it so far. Only 1950s creepy comedy oddity “The Mummy” by Bob Mcfadden & Dor caused SpotSearch a slight problem: I entered the first line “I’m a mummy, I scare people” and it found the song on YouTube but not on Spotify. Still, the app’s design means that searches are performed on the server side so developer Fredrik Thunberg can improve the search algorithms without forcing users to upgrade the app. Fredrik has also hinted that other updates are in the works including the ability to display the full lyrics of songs you search for.
SpotSearch is available in ad-supported free and paid-for ($0.99) versions from the Apple App Store and Android Market.