For starters we have Shazam. This is a nifty little program that lets you “tag” songs that you like or want to know the name of. All you do is hold the phone up to a speaker, TV or wherever the music is coming from and select “Tag Now.” The app will listen and then consult its library to identify the tune. When I used this, it worked pretty well, though I used an MP3 recording of Mika’s “Grace Kelly.” Even so, the results appeared quickly and accurately.

Midomi Mobile offers more functionality, though at a price. You can hold the phone up to a speaker or TV to identify music with this app as well, but you can also hum or sing a tune. This is especially helpful when you remember just a snippet of a song. You can even say a song name or artist name and it will bring up a list.

However, when I tried–however badly–to sing a bit of Ah-ha’s “Take On Me” I was greeted with a list of songs in Spanish. Hmm. I wouldn’t let my singing voice be the best judge here, but the app did crash about three times in the midst of searching.

I like both apps, and though Midomi does more, I think Shazam does less better.