YouTube Music is working to improve its discovery capabilities. The Google unit is testing an AI-powered personalized radio feature for Premium subscribers in the U.S., and is also gradually rolling out something called Sound Search, which lets users describe a type of sound, including by humming it, then having it searched from a catalog that features “over 100 million official songs,” according to YouTube Music. The feature was introduced on a limited basis on Android in May, and is now expanding to iOS users, albeit on what is still a limited basis.

Once available, those who want to try Sound Search “can tap the magnifying glass icon in the top-right corner of YouTube Music to access a waveform button” sitting next to the previously added microphone icon that triggers voice search, 9to5Google explains, adding that “this launches a full screen UI that lets you sing, hum, or play a song.”

Clicking the waveform icon will “take users to a new UI that will record whatever sound is playing, and the app will be responsible for finding what they are looking for,” reports Tech Times, comparing the feature to Apple’s Shazam, which also identifies music by sound, rather than description.

“We hope to bring this to even more YouTube Music users in the future,” a YouTube Music spokesperson told Music Business Worldwide, noting that “last year, Google — which, like YouTube, is owned by Alphabet — unveiled MusicLM, an ‘experimental AI’ tool that can generate high-fidelity music from text prompts and humming.”

The Sound Search results page displays cover art and song info, including the name of the artist and album, and year released. Download status and buttons to Play or Save also appear.

The new AI-assisted conversational radio feature lets users create a personalized radio station by describing what they want to hear. “For instance, you could ask for ‘catchy pop choruses’ or ‘upbeat pop anthems,’” TechCrunch suggests, calling the enhancement “somewhat similar to AI playlist generation tools currently being tested by Spotify, Amazon Music and, now, as of Monday, Deezer.”

Related:
YouTube Music Finally Adds ‘Mark as Played’ for Podcasts, 9to5Google, 7/15/24
YouTube Music: It’s Gaining on Spotify, so Is It Time to Switch?, TechRadar, 7/13/24