How to find the song used in a YouTube Shorts video
Need it fast? Watch the 46-second demo of MusicPulse identifying a YouTube Shorts audio edit live.
YouTube Shorts has become one of the primary places where viral audio tracks take off. However, finding the actual track name in a 15-second clip can be surprisingly frustrating. Creators frequently use pitch-shifted versions, sped-up audio, nightcore edits, or custom audio mashups that YouTube's built-in sound tag labels simply as "Original audio".
This guide explains the step-by-step methods to identify any song used in YouTube Shorts, from quick manual shortcuts to specialized browser extension workflows.
1. Check the bottom-right audio button
The first place to look on any YouTube Short is the square sound icon in the bottom-right corner of the video frame:
- Official sound link: If the creator picked a track from YouTube's official music library, clicking the sound button opens the Sound Page showing the official title, artist name, and other Shorts using the same audio.
- Original audio label: If the video says "Original audio - [Creator Name]", the audio was uploaded directly as part of the video file. This usually means it is a custom edit, a sped-up version, or a remix that wasn't matched automatically by YouTube's Content ID.
2. Search the YouTube comment section
When the sound icon does not yield the official title, the comment section is your next best asset. YouTube Shorts comments are heavily populated by users asking for track names:
- Open the comments drawer by tapping or clicking the comment icon.
- Use the comment search bar (or browser search
Ctrl+F) to search for keywords like "song", "track", "name", or "bgm". - Look for pinned comments by the creator. Creators often pin a comment giving credit to the artist or linking to the original track.
- Check for automated bots or timestamps left by helpful viewers (e.g. "Song at 0:05 is...").
3. Why traditional recognizers (Shazam) often fail on Shorts
Holding your phone up to your computer speaker to run Shazam or Google Sound Search works cleanly when the video plays an unedited studio recording. However, social video trends rely heavily on modified audio:
Classic acoustic matchers check audio against standard album releases. When a YouTube Short speeds up a song by 25%, adds reverb, or layers speech over the drop, traditional fingerprinting returns no result or identifies the wrong original song.
4. Use hybrid recognition directly in your browser
Rather than switching devices or manually guessing lyric fragments, a direct browser workflow offers the highest accuracy. MusicPulse is a Chrome extension built specifically to scan YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Instagram Reels directly from your active browser tab.
MusicPulse uses a 3-layer hybrid recognition engine:
- Layer 1 (Listen first): Performs high-speed audio fingerprinting on the video tab's raw audio stream.
- Layer 2 (Read the social trail): If the audio is pitched or chopped, MusicPulse scans surrounding context — including video titles, captions, lyric fragments, and top YouTube comments — to identify the exact variant.
- Layer 3 (Return usable links): Instead of just naming a standard album version, it provides direct replay links to Spotify, SoundCloud, and YouTube Music where the specific edit is available.
- Deep Scan: For heavily distorted or noisy clips, MusicPulse offers Deep Scan audio source separation to isolate the background music stem before matching.
Quick summary checklist
- Click the bottom-right sound icon on YouTube Shorts to check for a catalog link.
- Search the comments for "song name" or check for a pinned creator comment.
- For sped-up tracks or remixes, use a hybrid extension like MusicPulse that reads both sound and social context.
- Follow replay links directly to SoundCloud or YouTube Music to listen to the full version.