Snag for DJs
For DJs and producers hunting track IDs. The unknown track in a set, the edit you cannot place, the one you could not catch before it mixed out. Snag saves the audio of every attempt, so the ID is never lost, even when the room is loud or there is no signal.
What is Snag?
A free music identification app for iPhone, powered by Apple’s ShazamKit. It records a short audio clip with every attempt, so you never lose a track ID.
The track-ID problem
Every DJ knows the feeling. A track drops in a set and you have never heard it, but you need it. You reach for your phone, hold it up to a wall of sound, and a single tap gives you nothing before the track mixes out. The moment is gone, and so is the ID.
This is where ordinary recognition struggles most. The room is loud, the track might be an edit or a bootleg, and you only get one shot. Shazam fails hardest on exactly the records that play in these rooms: club edits, white-labels, and tracks that are not in any catalog yet. When it fails, you are left with nothing to act on.
Save the audio so the hunt is never lost
Snag is built the other way around. It records first, so the audio of every attempt is preserved before recognition even finishes. Whether or not a match comes back, you keep the recording.
That is the whole point for a DJ. A failed tap is no longer a dead end. You keep a real clip of the track you were chasing, so you can replay it, retry the identification later, play it for the DJ who dropped it, or send it to a peer who might know it. The hunt continues instead of ending the second the recognition misses.
Retry Analysis on noisy or edited captures
Because Snag saves the audio, it can do more than a single live tap can. Snag’s Retry Analysis re-checks the saved recording with Apple’s ShazamKit across several different windows of the clip, including end-aligned windows, giving the catalog more looks at the same audio than one noisy tap got.
That extra re-windowing sometimes identifies a track that a single tap missed in a loud room. It is the same ShazamKit catalog, just analyzed more ways, so it works only when the track is actually in the catalog.
What Snag cannot do
Be clear-eyed about this. Snag cannot identify an unreleased white-label, a one-off DJ edit, or a bootleg that is not in any catalog, because no recognition engine can name a track it does not have. Retry Analysis is catalog-only, just more windows of the same audio, not a different or better engine. For a genuinely unreleased ID, Snag’s value is not magic recognition. It is preserving the audio so you can ask peers, play it back, or retry later as catalogs grow and the track gets a release.
Snag uses Apple’s ShazamKit, so it recognizes the same catalog Shazam does. Its Retry Analysis re-checks your saved audio across more windows of the clip, which sometimes catches a catalog track a single tap missed. It does not find tracks outside the catalog, so an unreleased edit or white-label still will not come back with a name, but you keep the recording either way.
Build a history of your IDs
Every snag is saved to a history you can browse, organized by date. Add the venue where you heard a track and your own notes, and a pile of track IDs becomes a real music diary you can scroll back through any time.
Your snags are stored privately on your iPhone, with no account to create and nothing sold or used for advertising. If you turn on iCloud backup, they also sync to your own iCloud account. See the full flow on the how it works page.
Share the tracks you identify
When Snag identifies a track you get the title and artist with a link to Apple Music or Spotify, and you can share it with a link. Send a track ID straight to a friend or a fellow DJ in a tap.
And because you keep the recording, even a track that did not come back with a name is something you can play back in person for someone who might know it. The clip is yours until you delete it.
Frequently asked questions
Can Snag identify unreleased or white-label tracks?
No app can automatically name a track that is not in a recognition catalog, and Snag is honest about that. Snag uses Apple’s ShazamKit, so a one-off edit, a bootleg, or a white-label that Shazam does not have will not come back with a title. What Snag does instead is save the audio of the attempt, so the track is never lost. You keep the recording to ask the DJ or a peer, play it back, or retry the identification later as catalogs grow and the track gets a proper release.
How does Snag help DJs?
Snag records a short audio clip with every identification attempt, even when no match is found, so the unknown track in a set is never lost. You can replay the clip, retry the identification later, add the venue and your own notes, and browse a history of every track you have caught. When a track is identified you get the title and artist with a link to Apple Music or Spotify, and you can share it. It works offline, recording the moment even with no signal so you can identify it once you are back online.
Can Snag catch a track Shazam missed in a loud club?
Sometimes, yes, if the track is in Apple’s ShazamKit catalog. Because Snag saves the audio, its Retry Analysis can re-check that saved clip across several different windows of the recording, giving the catalog more looks at it than a single noisy tap got. That extra re-windowing sometimes identifies a catalog track that the first attempt missed in a loud room. It uses the same ShazamKit catalog, just more windows, so it cannot find a track that is not in the catalog at all.
Can I keep a history of my track IDs?
Yes. Every snag is saved to a history you can browse, organized by date, with an optional location and your own notes. It turns a pile of track IDs into a browsable music diary you can scroll back through. Recordings are stored privately on your iPhone, there is no account to create, and if you turn on iCloud backup they also sync to your own iCloud account.
Can I share a track I identified?
Yes. When Snag identifies a track you can share it with a link, so you can send a track ID straight to a friend or fellow DJ. You also keep the saved recording, so even when a track is not identified you can play the clip back for someone in person who might know it.
Never lose a track ID again.
Free on iPhone. Every attempt is saved, so the next unknown track in a set is one you can always come back to.
