December 30, 2006

How to Use Google Music Search

When you search for a singer or a music band at Google.com, you'll notice a box above search results that shows more information.


This feature is not new (in fact, it's been available for almost a year), but many people don't know that you can trigger Google Music Search by simply adding "music:" in front of your query. Google has a big database of artists, songs and albums and everything is searchable.

So how can you use it?

1. Let's say you know the name of a song, but you don't know the artist. Search for [music: name of the song] and Google will show you all the songs that have this name. You can also use quotes if you are sure about the name.

It's easy to find albums or artists if you don't remember the entire name (for example, a British singer named Lily).

2. Maybe you know the lyrics of a song and you want to find the song. You can enter the lyrics in the regular search and you may find it, but if the song is not very popular or if there are more songs that have similar lyrics, it's a much better idea to use Google Music Search. This way, you'll get unique songs as search results.

Compare this regular search with Google Music Search.

3. You can find information about songs: the duration, the album, the composers, different versions of a song (for example: Gnarls Barkley's Crazy).

4. Sort the albums of an artist by popularity (e.g.: Red Hot Chili Peppers) and read reviews.


So next time when you want all this information, just add music: in front of your Google search query.

16 comments:

  1. Well.. Alex.. its a nice post.. but I have some point to stress..
    the reason for majority of users search for music is for downloading.. when you add the key "music:" in front of a query, it results in sites which SELL either those searched albums or songs through iTunes music, AOL, Yahoo! music, buy.com etc..

    so, when someone searches for a song, if they know the artist name, the best way would be, as we all know, to search it as [?intitle:index.of mp3 (artist name)]... or the same way, to use terms as [+"index of" +"last modified" +(artist name)] etc.. you can modify the string in accordance with your criteria..

    last of all, imagine that you know the lyrics of a song.. search for it through some lyrics site.. I mean, write those lyric contents with 'lyrics' added in the end... when you end up with what you want, you can now search this name in the same manner above.. and I think most of us already know this..

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  2. Well, for lyrics, I've always used quotes to surround the phrases I'm positive of, and any scattered words I just add in for the hell of it (along with the obligatory keyword "lyrics"). Hasn't failed me yet.

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  3. also works for movie reviews

    type movie: infront of the search query

    no automatic link to watch trailers, except type the movie title in quotes, and if you're lucky you'll get a link. if not add apple trailer at the end of your query

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  4. In My Heart by Moby XD

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  5. Does this work with other Languages , for example Arabic ?

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  6. I'm looking for a song from an off Broadway Show called Pump Boys and Dinette. The song was sung by the Dinettes The song: SISTER
    according to the program, was written by C. Morgan Some of the lyrics were: we were s
    tangers growing up and we are still strangers
    I would love to have the complete lyrics.
    THANK YOU, M. SCHER

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  7. how do you get google songs to your windows media player, can you even do that?

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  8. is it possible to send this to a friend. You see I have a cool song by corb lund and I want to send it to her , so is that possible

    P.SW. got tips on love email me

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  9. My band doesn't come up. Is there a way to add it manually, or do we need to "make it big?"

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  10. It doesn't show any bands or albums that have come out in the last year or two. other than that it works pretty well. i jut have a hard time finding the music search site. i found it but can't get back to it!

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  11. how can i get there????? i am so confused!!!!!

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  12. I agree with Bega. Most of the music searches are about finding a download link. So using a query without 'music' would be much more helpful. For other uses 'music' prefix seems to work perfect. But still for downloads i'd prefer a music search engine like songza or noiset.

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  13. It's weird to see a great service in such ugly hands (this is the risk for any startup), but it's also difficult to find other service..
    affordable homes in bangalore

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