If the clips are already on your phone, the quickest fix is to import them into Chord. It files each clip under the night you filmed it and looks for the song in the background, so you don't have to sit there playing forty videos one at a time. No Chord? Play a clip out loud and let Shazam listen on a second phone, or look up the setlist for that show.
The song is still in there. Whatever the night did to your memory, the audio on most clips holds enough of the track for something to recognise it.
Import the clips into Chord
Import from your camera roll. Chord reads the date on each clip to put it under the right Night, then checks the audio for the song. When it finds one, you get a Song found notification. A clip it can't match stays in the Night without a song, and you can type or search for the track on the clip yourself.
Play the clip to a song-ID app
The old trick still works. Play the clip on your laptop or a friend's phone and hold your own phone, with Shazam, SoundHound or Google's song search open, near the speaker. Skip to a chorus or a vocal line, because build-ups and crowd chants rarely match.
Check the setlist
If it was a band or a singer, someone has probably posted the setlist on setlist.fm. Check what time the clip was shot, work out how far into the set that was, and count down the list. At a festival, check the stage times first. It's easy to be sure you were at one set when it was really the one before.
Ask whoever was with you
Someone in your group may know it, or have a cleaner clip. If you were all in a shared Chord Night, the Setlist already lists every song the crew caught, so the one you missed may be sitting right there.
When nothing matches
Some clips won't match anywhere, and it isn't always the app's fault.
- The track isn't out yet. DJs play unreleased music all the time, and no app can name a recording it has never heard. Keep the clip and check 1001Tracklists or the DJ's posts later.
- It's a live version or an edit that sounds too different from the studio recording.
- The crowd is louder than the speakers. A quieter few seconds of the same clip sometimes does it.
- Live Bollywood and Punjabi songs miss often, because the live version strays from the studio one. Adding the song yourself takes two taps.
Filmed a DJ set? What "ID" means in a tracklist →
More ways to find a song from a concert →
Questions people ask
Which app can identify songs from videos I already filmed?
Chord can. Import the clips from your camera roll, and Chord files each one under the night you filmed it and looks for the song in the background.
Can Shazam identify a song from a video on my phone?
Yes, if you play the video out loud on one device and let Shazam listen on another. A clean chorus gives it the best chance.
Why can't any app name some songs from my festival clips?
The track may be unreleased, a DJ edit or a live version, or the crowd may be too loud. Song-ID apps can only match recordings they already know.