Heard It Once and Can't Find It: How to Track Down Niche Music

You caught a few seconds of something while watching a stream, or a track came on in the background of a YouTube video, or your friend's playlist had one song that absolutely floored you and then the moment was gone. Now it's rattling around in your head and you can't find it anywhere. This situation is more common than ever — music is everywhere, and a huge amount of it never gets properly labelled or surfaced by algorithms.

Here's how to actually track it down, starting from the easiest options and working towards the more involved ones.

start with audio recognition

If you have any audio at all — even a clip on your phone, a VOD you can still access, or the song playing right now somewhere — audio fingerprinting is your fastest option. Tools like TrueTrackID let you upload a file, use your microphone, or point directly at a Twitch stream to get an instant match. Shazam and SoundHound work well for mainstream releases. For music that lives in more underground corners — SoundCloud uploads, self-released tracks, music from smaller producers — TrueTrackID's library skews towards that world.

The important thing is to capture the audio while you still can. If you're watching a stream and something good comes on, record a clip with your phone or use a screen recorder immediately. Don't wait and assume you'll find it later — you usually won't.

if you only have a melody in your head

This is the harder case. If you can hum or sing the tune, SoundHound is specifically built for this — it can match hummed or sung melodies against its database with surprisingly good results. Google also has a hum-to-search feature built into its app: tap the microphone, say "what's this song," and hum for about 10 seconds.

Neither of these works well for very niche music that isn't in a major database, but they're worth trying first because they're quick.

describe it in words and search smart

If you remember anything about the context — where you heard it, what it sounded like, any words from the lyrics — a carefully constructed Google search can get you there. Some approaches that actually work:

Search the lyrics directly. Even a rough approximation of a phrase you remember, in quotes, often surfaces the track. Try variations if the first doesn't work — you might be misremembering a word.

Search by mood and genre combined with context. Something like "lo-fi hip hop with female vocal heard on twitch" or "dark ambient techno background music twitch" can lead you to community discussions where someone else already asked the same question.

Search for the specific VOD or video. If you remember roughly when you heard it, find the VOD timestamp and use TrueTrackID or Shazam at that moment.

ask the community

There are communities built entirely around identifying unknown music, and they're remarkably good at it.

r/NameThatSong on Reddit is the main one — post a description, a clip, or a rough melody description and the regulars will often have an answer within hours. The more detail you provide about the sound, tempo, instruments, and where you heard it, the better your chances.

r/tipofmytongue handles all kinds of "I can't remember what this thing is called" questions, including music. It has a huge active user base.

For music heard on Twitch specifically, the streamer's own community is often the best resource. Check their Discord if they have one, or ask in chat during a future stream. Many streamers post their playlists or respond to song questions directly.

dig into the platform where you heard it

Different platforms leave different trails worth following:

Twitch — some streamers link their music sources in their panels or bio. Look for a Spotify or SoundCloud link. If the music sounds like it's from a specific playlist service, the streamer may have mentioned it in a previous stream or in their about section.

YouTube — check the video description first, always. A lot of creators credit the music they use. If it's a music video or an artist upload, the channel itself is your lead. If it's background music in a vlog or gaming video, the description often has a "music by" credit at the bottom.

TikTok and Instagram Reels — both platforms surface the audio source automatically. Tap the spinning disc icon on a TikTok to see the full audio credit and find other videos using the same track.

Spotify and Apple Music — if you have a rough sense of the genre and era, both platforms have strong radio and "similar artists" features that can help you stumble onto what you're looking for. Spotify's search also accepts mood-based queries.

when nothing works

Sometimes a piece of music genuinely can't be found. It might be a custom track made specifically for a streamer, an unreleased demo, a white-label DJ tool, or something so obscure it predates the internet's music cataloguing efforts. In these cases, the best you can do is describe it as precisely as possible — tempo, key if you can tell, instrumentation, any words, the vibe — and keep asking.

The music identification community is impressively tenacious. There are posts on Reddit where people have spent months tracking down a single obscure track, and someone eventually comes through. Don't give up on a song just because it doesn't surface immediately.