I have an mp3 but I don't know the name of the song or the artist

October 8, 2004 9:46 AM

I have an mp3, but I don't know the name of the song or the artist. [mi]

I downloaded an mp3 from Napster several years ago. I deleted the file from my harddrive at some point, but have the song on a cd. I'm trying to find out the name and artist. It's dancehall. Anyone have any ideas of any websites that I could post the song and have it identified?

posted by Juicylicious to Media & Arts (11 answers total)

Posting it somewhere where we can hear it here might work.

You could also try MusicBrainz.
posted by jammer at 10:04 AM on October 8, 2004

Search for lines from the song verbatim coupled with the word "lyrics." Works for me every time.
posted by agregoli at 10:08 AM on October 8, 2004

Response by poster: agregoli - therein lies a problem. It's dancehall. The lyrics are Jamaican patois. I can't understand most of it.
posted by Juicylicious at 10:16 AM on October 8, 2004

Are you in the UK? Shazam
posted by Orange Goblin at 10:33 AM on October 8, 2004

Response by poster: no, usa.
posted by Juicylicious at 10:41 AM on October 8, 2004

Second recommendation for MusicBrainz, although iEatBrainz had about a 50% success rate for my untagged mp3s.

Or you could always post a fair-use clip to the green...
posted by revgeorge at 10:55 AM on October 8, 2004

Longshot : Assuming that you burned the track onto an audio, as opposed to mp3, CD, pop it into your DVD player. Both my DVD players will display the 'CD-Text' on the TV.
posted by punilux at 10:59 AM on October 8, 2004

Response by poster: I actually have it burned to cd in .wav format. Does that make a difference?
posted by Juicylicious at 12:41 PM on October 8, 2004

I never used Napster, but I assume the mp3 had a filename of the form 'dancehall_tune_name.mp3'. Unless you explicitly changed the name, the convert to wav & burn software I've used, (Nero & Roxio) would preserve that name. You should be able to 'explore'* the CD and thus discover the name, no?

* I only know Windows, your Mac mileage may vary.
posted by punilux at 12:49 PM on October 8, 2004

maybe posting it on filepile or some such?
posted by Espoo2 at 3:40 PM on October 8, 2004

Rip it to MP3 and post a bit....you'd be amazed what people can recognise...
posted by mattr at 7:05 AM on October 9, 2004