ReelSongFinder Guides

A song inside a longer video

Find the song in a video: clip the moment, then match it

You know a song plays somewhere in a vlog, a stream, a movie scene or a ten minute edit, but not which one it is. The matcher listens to a short stretch of audio, so the job is to cut that stretch out first. This page shows how to find the moment, trim it on a phone or a computer, and upload it.

Listening to Reel audio…

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Share result

To use a clip, press No link? Upload a screen recording instead under the box and choose the file. The box itself only takes a public Instagram Reel link.

Why you have to clip it first

When a video file is larger than about 9 MB, the page turns it into a 30 second audio sample taken from the start of the file, and that sample is what gets matched. It does not scan the rest of the video, and the answer is a single song with no timestamp. So an hour long stream uploaded as it is will be matched on its first half minute, which may be a greeting. The fix is to hand over the part you care about.

Steps

  1. Check the free sources first. A YouTube video may list music under “Music in this video”, in chapters or in a pinned comment, and viewers often reply “what is the song at 3:20?”. See YouTube song finder for where those credits are. It costs nothing and gives an exact name.
  2. Find the moment. Scrub to where the music is clearest, with as little talking over it as you can get. Write the start time down. Pick a spot where the song has begun playing rather than a quiet intro.
  3. Cut 15 to 30 seconds from there. Pick a method below.
  4. Upload the clip: press “No link? Upload a screen recording instead” under the box at the top of this page, choose the clip, and press Find song.

Ways to cut the clip

  • iPhone: open the video in Photos, tap Edit, drag the yellow handles on the timeline to the start and end, tap Done, and save it as a new clip.
  • Android: open the video in Google Photos or the Gallery app, choose Edit (or Trim), move the handles and save a copy. Menu names differ between phones.
  • Windows or Mac: the built-in Photos app (Windows), Clipchamp, QuickTime Player (Edit, then Trim) or any video editor will do.
  • No editing at all: play the video from the moment you want and screen record it with device audio on, for about 20 seconds. The recording is the clip. Recording tips are in identify the song without downloading.
  • ffmpeg, if you use it: this cuts 25 seconds starting at 12 minutes 40 seconds and writes a small mono audio file (about 800 KB): ffmpeg -ss 00:12:40 -i input.mp4 -t 25 -vn -ac 1 -ar 16000 clip.wav We ran this on a test video and it produced a 25 second, 800 KB WAV. Upload clip.wav the same way as a video.

Different kinds of long video

Vlogs, streams and YouTube videos

Background music under talking is the hardest case. Wait for a gap in the speech, or a montage or an intro, and cut there. Streamers often mute copyrighted music in saved videos, so a silent section may have no song left in the file at all. Compare the same moment in the live version if one exists.

Movie and TV scenes

A pop song in a scene often matches if the dialogue is quiet. The film score usually does not, because composed score is much less likely to be in the catalog. Search the scene’s soundtrack listing as well, which names licensed songs.

Mixes, sets and compilations

These contain many songs and transitions. Match short clips from the middle of each track, not the blend between two. A mix often returns the song that dominates that moment. The limits are written up under tracklist ID.

Short social clips

If the video is already short, there is nothing to cut; upload it as it is, see find song from a video. For a Reel with a public link, paste the link, see song finder by video.

Limits worth knowing

  • One clip returns one song. There is no timeline, tracklist or list of alternatives.
  • Speech over the music, crowd noise, live recordings, sped-up or pitched edits and unreleased tracks often return no match.
  • We have not measured a match rate for movies, vlogs or streams, so we do not quote one.
  • The first 2 matches in a browser are free. After that it is $4.99 for 20 or $9.99 a month, see pricing. A no-match or a failed upload is not counted.

Questions

Can the tool scan a whole video and list the songs?

No. It matches one stretch of audio and returns one song. For a large file it reads only the first 30 seconds, and it does not return timestamps. To find a song at 12:40 in a video, cut a clip that starts around 12:40 and upload the clip.

How long should the clip be?

Fifteen to thirty seconds that start where the music starts. Longer is not better for a large file, because only the first 30 seconds are used. Shorter than about ten seconds gives the catalog less to compare.

The video has several songs. What do I do?

Cut one clip per song and match each one separately. Each successful match counts as one match. A DJ mix or a long compilation is a hard case; see tracklist ID for what to expect.

It is a scene from a movie or a series. Will it find the song?

If the scene uses a released song and the dialogue is quiet, usually yes. Film score and incidental music are often not in the catalog, and dialogue over the music hides it. A no-match is not counted against your free matches.

I can see the video, but I cannot hear the song, only people talking.

Then there is little for the match to use. Look for a moment where the speech stops, or read the video description, pinned comment and chapters before trying again.

Does the video get uploaded?

If you upload a clip over about 9 MB, only a small audio file of its first 30 seconds is sent, and the video stays on your device. A clip under about 9 MB is uploaded as it is, so cutting to 15 to 30 seconds also keeps the upload small.

Got the clip?

Press the upload link under the box, choose the 15 to 30 second clip, and press Find song.

Find the song

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