Midomi: The Website That Identifies Songs You Hum

Ever had a melody stuck in your head but couldn't think of the song title to save your life? You're humming it in the shower, tapping it on your desk, and it's right there on the tip of your brain—but the name? Gone. Enter Midomi.com, a website that lets you sing, hum, or even whistle a tune into your computer or phone, and it'll tell you exactly what song is tormenting you.

Launched in 2005 by a company called Melodis Corp, Midomi was one of the first music recognition services that could identify songs from your voice rather than a recording. While competitors like Shazam required you to play the actual song, Midomi pioneered the ability to match melodies hummed by users—no perfect pitch required.

How Does It Actually Work?

When you hum into Midomi, the technology analyzes the melody pattern—the sequence of notes, rhythm, and pitch changes—and converts it into a digital fingerprint. It then searches a massive database of songs to find matches. The algorithm is surprisingly forgiving: you don't need to hit every note perfectly or remember all the lyrics. Even a rough approximation of the tune is often enough.

For best results, Midomi recommends humming for at least 10 seconds, keeping background noise to a minimum, and having only one person sing at a time. The big orange button on the site makes it dead simple—just click, hum, and wait.

From Midomi to SoundHound

In 2009, Midomi's mobile app was rebranded as SoundHound, and the company formally changed its name to SoundHound Inc. in 2010. By 2012, SoundHound had grown to 100 million users, and by 2016, it boasted over 300 million.

While the SoundHound app became the flagship product, midomi.com has remained operational as a web-based alternative. You can still visit the site today and use the same hum-to-search functionality without downloading an app—perfect for when you're on a desktop or don't want to clutter your phone with another music app.

Why It Matters

Before Midomi, if you couldn't remember a song title, you were stuck describing it to friends like a game of musical charades: "You know, that one that goes dun dun dun da-da?" Now, voice-based music recognition is everywhere—Google Assistant and Siri both have hum-to-search features inspired by this technology.

But Midomi was the pioneer. It proved that computers could understand the messy, imperfect way humans recall music, not just the pristine studio recordings. That's no small feat—your off-key humming of "Bohemian Rhapsody" sounds nothing like Freddie Mercury, yet the algorithm can still connect the dots.

So next time you're haunted by an earworm and can't name it, don't suffer in silence. Head to midomi.com, unleash your inner shower singer, and let the internet do what it does best: figure out what you're talking about even when you barely can.