Identify songs at concerts, clubs, and festivals
Loud room, no signal, and the moment passes fast. Snag records the audio the instant you tap, even offline, so you can identify the song later instead of losing it to the night.
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 song.
Why the song slips away at a show
The places you hear the most new music are the worst places to identify it. A club or festival stacks the odds against you three ways at once.
It is loud. Crowd noise, room echo, and a heavy system bury the track, so a single recognition tap gets one messy look and often comes back with nothing.
There is no signal. Packed rooms, basements, and open fields kill your reception, and ordinary music identification needs the internet at the exact moment you tap.
The moment is fleeting. The drop you wanted to ID is already gone by the time you have your phone out, and the next one is right behind it.
Capture now, identify later
Snag is built the other way around from a one-shot recognizer. The instant you tap, it starts recording, so the audio of the moment is saved before recognition even finishes. With or without a connection, the clip is yours.
That is what makes Snag work in a loud room with no bars. The recognition step needs the internet, so when you are offline Snag holds the recording and you run the identification once you are back on signal, on the walk home or the next morning. Tap in the moment, name the song later.
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Tap the instant you hear it
One tap starts the recording. You do not have to wait for a connection or hold your phone up and hope, so a packed, loud room is no longer a problem.
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Snag saves the audio
Every attempt keeps a short clip, online or off, whether or not a match comes back. The moment is captured even when the network is not.
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Identify on the spot or later
If you have signal, Apple’s ShazamKit names the track right there. If not, the saved clip is ready to retry the moment you are back online.
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Keep the night in your history
Every snag lands in a browsable history with the date, an optional location, and your own notes, so the whole night is there to scroll back through.
Retry Analysis for noisy captures
A loud venue gives a single recognition tap one short, noisy look at the music, and that is often not enough. Because Snag keeps the actual recording, it does not have to settle for one look.
Snag’s Retry Analysis re-checks the saved clip by running Apple’s ShazamKit across several different windows of the audio, slicing it different ways so the catalog gets more than one chance to match. Giving the same recording several looks sometimes catches a song the first tap missed in the chaos of the room.
Retry Analysis uses the same ShazamKit catalog Shazam does. It is not a different or larger engine, just more looks at the audio you already saved.
Snag is great for DJ sets and recorded music in loud, no-signal venues. For a live band playing their own set or a cover, it cannot name the song, because Apple’s ShazamKit matches released studio recordings, not live performances. But it still saves the audio, so you can play the clip for someone or try again later.
A diary of the night
Every snag is saved to a history you can browse, organized by date. Tag the venue where you heard a track and add your own notes, and a single night out becomes a record you can actually look back through.
Months later you can scroll back to a festival weekend or a DJ set and find the songs that defined it, with the place attached. The clips you could not identify in the moment are right there too, waiting for a retry or for someone who might know the track.
Your snags are stored privately on your iPhone and your own iCloud account, with no account to create and nothing sold or used for advertising. Learn more on the privacy page, or see the full flow on how Snag works.
Frequently asked questions
Can Snag identify a song playing at a club?
Yes, when the club is playing recorded music, like a DJ set or a PA running released studio tracks. Snag records the audio the instant you tap and uses Apple’s ShazamKit to identify it. Because Snag records first, you do not have to hold your phone up and hope: tap once, and even in a packed, loud room you have a saved clip you can identify on the spot or retry later.
Does it work with no signal at a festival?
Snag records the audio the moment you tap, even with no signal at all. The recognition step itself needs a connection, so out in a field or a packed festival crowd Snag holds the clip and you run the identification once you are back online. The moment is captured the instant you hear it, not lost because the network was down.
Can Snag identify a live band or a cover?
No. Apple’s ShazamKit identifies recorded, released tracks by matching a studio fingerprint, so it cannot name a live band performance, a cover, or a hummed melody, because none of those match the fingerprint of the studio recording. Snag has the same limit. What Snag still does is save the audio, so even when the song cannot be named you keep a clip you can play for someone who might know it or try again later.
Why does Shazam struggle in loud venues?
Loud venues pile noise on top of the music: crowd chatter, room echo, a heavy system, and a track that may be an edit or a bootleg. A single live recognition tap gets one short look at that messy audio and often comes back empty. Because Snag saves the recording, its Retry Analysis can re-check the same clip across several windows of the audio, giving Apple’s ShazamKit catalog more than one look, which sometimes catches a song the first tap missed.
Is Snag free, and will it drain my battery?
Snag is free, with no account to create, and the recognition runs on your device with Apple’s ShazamKit. Identifying a song is a quick, lightweight action: you tap, it records a short clip, and it stops. It is built for the way you actually use it at a show, a few taps across a night, not for running constantly in the background.
Never lose the song from a night out.
Free on iPhone. Tap the moment you hear it, even offline, and identify the track from the club or festival later.
