Many of us no doubt still recall that first dazzling sensation of identifying a song at a coffee shop or on the radio with Shazam -- it felt like magic, or at least the closest an iOS app can come to that. All props due to that innovative leader, which still leads in the market in terms of name recognition, as it's now being used for marketing purposes via commercial jingles and the like.

But in terms of helpful features and speed of use, it's hard not to shine a spotlight on SoundHound as the best in the genre. Like Shazam, SoundHound can "listen" to a song over the air and in most cases identify it correctly, but this alternative option can do it in as few as four seconds, saving you precious moments of staring at a screen while the app considers the options.

Still, our favorite function of SoundHound is its exclusive ability to recognize songs that you hum or sing. Got a song stuck in your head and can't place the artist or title? Sing it to SoundHound and see what pops up. It's not as effective as trying to ID the actual studio recording, but the sheer fact that it can do it at all is downright impressive, and it's better than searching for snippets of lyrics online.

SoundHound is also deeply integrated with other music services, letting you quickly access songs and ringtones via iTunes, launch a Pandora station based on the artist in question, look up tour dates and lyrics, and check out the most popular bands and tracks. It's a music discovery service in more ways than one! The universal app is available in an ad-supported free version, as well as SoundHound ∞, a $6.99 premium version with additional features.

The Best is a new weekly column in which we spotlight the most helpful or impressive iOS app to fit a certain need, whether it's a part of your day-to-day life or just something cool that might come in handy down the line.

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A Look at SoundHound

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  Simply tap the large orange button to start the process. You can capture audio playing from a speaker or in a public place, or even sing or hum into your phone to try and identify a song.

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  The longer you sing or play the music, the better shot SoundHound will have at correctly locating the song in question. But you can ID tracks in as little as four seconds.

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  Once the song is located, SoundHound will give you a variety of options, from streaming a sample to buying the song, playing a Pandora station, or watching YouTube clips. And if you have the song on your device already, you can easily play it from there.

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  Scrolling lyrics keep up with the song, letting you learn the words as you listen without any manual input.

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  On iPad, the listening feature is permanently docked in landscape view, making it easier to ID several songs at once and read all about them.

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  Charts on both iPad and iPhone detail the hottest and most popular tracks, but also let you scope out the next big thing: songs that SoundCloud users are hyped on, but traditional radio hasn't grabbed onto quite yet.

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