Youtube Algorithm Identifies Unidentified Songs

[Amsterdam Russ]

Looking through ebay, I came across a beaten up old acetate with pieces missing described as "Unknown frat rock R&B 7".

Link here: https://www.ebay.com/...=item35c4db2155

The seller has posted a sound file to YouTube and described it as "unknown band". Play it and you'll hear the acetate is in a dreadful condition. It's not just crackly; the sound is badly distorted. It really is awful.

What really surprised me is the ad underneath the YouTube player. It says that the crackly and unidentified track is "Willie's House Party" by the Willie Mitchell Combo (screen grab below).

Click through the link to iTunes and it takes you to a Willie Mitchell cd, which you can buy.

Listen to the sound file for "Willie's House Party" and you'll hear that the YouTube song id algorithm was spot on! And, this song isn't even on YouTube (if it is, I couldn't find it).

I knew music id algorithms were good, but not this flippin' good! I think that's absolutely amazing!

Edited February 27, 2013 by Russell Gilbert

[Mick Holdsworth]

Just gone there, and it found the Willie Mitchell info before the YouTube file even began to load, let alone play.

Is it just making an intelligent guess based on title, and happened to get it right ?

Cheers

Mick

[Pete S]

I just noticed something similar-ish.

On the podcast I posted just now, I used the track Sad Sad Way which is a 'new' vocal to Sidras Theme. I took it from my itunes library where it was tagged as Larry Hammond - Sad sad Way.

I am just playing said podcast and it says "now playing - ronnie & robyn - sidras theme"!

[Amsterdam Russ]

Just gone there, and it found the Willie Mitchell info before the YouTube file even began to load, let alone play.

Is it just making an intelligent guess based on title, and happened to get it right ?

Cheers

Mick

There are loads of songs and albums with the words House and Party in them, so it's definitely not a guess. It's all about digital/acoustic fingerprinting, but I never realised it was so advanced. Often times on YouTube you'd see that the iTunes link under a music video was wrong.

They seem to have gotten smarter, and have access to richer databases of music! Anyway, it's still kind of spooky!

Edited February 27, 2013 by Russell Gilbert

[Pomonkey]

Does make it amusing when people have posted c/u's and simply playing it into Shazam uncovers it right away

[phillyDaveG]

Does make it amusing when people have posted c/u's and simply playing it into Shazam uncovers it right away

I love playing "beat Shazam" when DJing, I've got a pretty good record

[Pomonkey]

Know what you mean, good friend here, Marty, relentlessly used to Shazam my sets for a while and finally gave up haha