How do I find out what song is playing in commercials?
Music plays a key role in commercials and advertisements, helping brands connect emotionally with audiences. The proper song choice can make an ad more memorable and impactful. For this reason, many viewers are interested in identifying the catchy, compelling tunes they hear during commercials.
There are a variety of methods available to determine what song is playing in a commercial or advertisement. This guide provides an overview of the most effective techniques, ranging from using audio recognition technology to consulting music licensing organizations. With the right approach, you can find the name and artist behind virtually any commercial jingle or background track.
Check the Commercial Itself
The first step in identifying a song used in a commercial is to listen for any music credits during or after the commercial. Many companies will include a brief credit at the end identifying the song name and artist. Keep your ears open for any mentions of “music by…” or “featuring the song…” as the commercial wraps up.
If no credits are provided, try contacting the company directly to inquire about the commercial’s music. Most brands list contact information on their websites or social media pages. Send an email identifying the specific commercial (ideally with an air date and description) and politely ask them to provide song details, including the artist name and track title. You may need to follow up multiple times to get a response.
According to Universal Music Group, questions about commercial music can be directed to their Royalty Customer Service Line. Other major labels like Sony and Warner may also have contacts who can assist if they represent the artist.
Use Audio Recognition Apps
One of the most popular ways to identify a song from a commercial is to use audio recognition apps like Shazam, SoundHound, or Musixmatch. These apps listen to a short sample of audio and use advanced fingerprinting technology to match it against a database of songs.
Shazam is one of the most well-known options. It has an extensive music database and is very accurate at identifying songs, even in noisy environments. One downside is you have to have the Shazam app open and actively listening to identify a song.
SoundHound has similar audio recognition capabilities as Shazam but also allows for hands-free identification just by humming or singing a tune. It also integrates with Spotify and YouTube for playback. However, its music database is not as extensive.
Musixmatch focuses more on song lyrics but can also ID tracks playing around you. It syncs lyrics in real-time with music playback. The lyrics database has gaps compared to other services though.
In summary, these apps provide a handy way to quickly identify music playing on TV, radio, or in public. However, they require installing an app and being able to get a good recording of the audio sample to work properly.
Check Production Music Libraries
One of the most common places to find music used in commercials is through production music libraries. Major libraries like APM Music, Extreme Music, and Audio Network specialize in licensing music for advertisements, TV, film, and other media. These libraries have extensive catalogs with thousands of tracks across various genres and moods.
To search these libraries for a commercial song, you can visit their websites and use the built-in search features. For example, on the APM Music site, you can search by keywords, genres, instruments, tempo, and mood. The search will pull up relevant tracks from their catalog. Most production music sites allow you to preview clips of the songs to compare against what you heard in the commercial.
If you can recall some distinguishing details about the song like lyrics, genre, instruments, tempo etc., these can aid your search through the huge libraries. Some even allow humming or uploading audio clips for comparison. If the commercial song came from a major production music library, targeted searches through their catalogs offer the best chance of tracking it down.
Sources: https://www.productionhub.com/directory/profiles/sound-libraries-stock-production-music, https://www.soundstripe.com/music-library
Search the Brand’s Ad Agency
Ad agencies often list commercials and music credits on their websites or provide case studies of their work. While all the details may not be publicly listed, it’s a good starting point to visit the website of the agency that produced the ad.
For example, searching “[Agency Name] commercials” could pull up a portfolio page with video clips and descriptions. The music credits may be mentioned here. Some agencies also have sections highlighting their composers, music supervisors or licensing partnerships, which could contain useful information.
If the agency website doesn’t have the music details you need, consider contacting them directly. Many agencies are receptive to licensing inquiries and will provide song details, especially if you represent a brand interested in similar music for an upcoming campaign.
It may take some digging through agency websites, but tracking down the ad producer is often the most straightforward path to finding commercial music credits.
Consult Licensing Organizations
Organizations like ASCAP and BMI track commercial music and make their databases searchable for the public. These performance rights organizations license music to brands for commercial use and keep records of the songs in their catalogs. You can search these databases to identify a song from a commercial.
For example, ASCAP’s ACE Repertory allows you to search over 10 million works. If you can find lyrics or other details about the song, you may get a match in the database. BMI also has a searchable repertoire of over 1 million works.
ASCAP even has a guide on Finding Music used in Advertisements that explains how to search their databases to ID commercial music. So leveraging the vast databases these organizations have compiled can help unlock the title and artist of elusive commercial songs.
Use Online Forums
Forums like Reddit and Quora may have existing threads where users discuss or identify music used in commercials. This can be a quick way to crowdsource the answer. However, reliability may be questionable. Anyone can post on these forums anonymously, so the accuracy of the information depends on the expertise of the individual poster. Limitations include the fact that you may not find an existing thread for the specific commercial you’re inquiring about. Additionally, forums do not cover all commercials exhaustively. Still, they can provide a good starting point for identifying who created the music or where it came from originally.
Check Music Supervisor Databases
Sites like IMDB list music supervisors and credits for commercials and other media. You can search or browse the music credits on IMDB to potentially find the supervisor responsible for selecting the song used in a commercial.
The process involves cross-referencing the commercial details (brand, product, year, ad agency, etc.) with the music supervisor credits listed on databases. Match up the details to find the likely supervisor for that commercial campaign. Then check which songs and artists they have credited for that project. This cross-referencing approach makes use of production details to track down the individual with knowledge of the music selection.
Consider Crowdsourcing
Sites like WhatsOnTVCommercials crowdsource information from users about songs featured in commercials. This allows you to search or browse their database of commercials to see if anyone has identified the song you’re looking for.
The reliability of the information depends on users actively contributing accurate song IDs. The more popular a commercial is, the more likely users will correctly identify the song. But for more obscure commercials, you may not find any song information submitted.
Still, crowdsourcing sites can provide a helpful starting point in your search. And if the song information isn’t there yet, you can be the one to submit it for others once you’ve identified the song through another method.
Conclusion
In this article, we discussed several methods for finding out what song is playing in commercials and ads. Some key strategies included:
- Checking the commercial itself for credits or listening closely to see if lyrics are discernible
- Using audio recognition apps like Shazam or SoundHound to identify the song
- Searching production music libraries that provide songs for licensing
- Contacting the brand’s ad agency that produced the commercial
- Consulting performing rights organizations and licensing companies
- Posting on online forums or social media to crowdsource an answer
- Looking up music supervisors who may have selected the song
When trying to ID a song, it helps to note any key lyrics, instruments, melodies, or other audio clues. Also document any visual details about the commercial, brand, or products. The more contextual information available, the easier it becomes to track down the exact song.
With persistence and clever searching across multiple sources, more often than not you can successfully name that tune from a commercial or ad. Just don’t give up too quickly, and utilize multiple strategies outlined here as needed.