Similarity Search feature guide

With Similarity Search, you can find Tracks in your DISCO that sound similar.

At a glance

Similarity Search is included in our Discovery Suite add-on feature pack and is available on Supervisor plans.

You can use the search bar at the top of your DISCO, or the Similar tracks tab on the Track panel in the Explorer:

We find this feature quite useful for briefs that mention a reference Track!

How it works

Similarity Search is powered by our AI to analyze audio from your Tracks and compare it with audio from other Tracks on a large amount of different dimensions. It does not take into account tags, metadata, or other high-level Track information, but performs a search on the sound of the audio itself.

A few other things to note:

• Videos in your DISCO are currently not included in Similarity Search results.
• Similarity Search works better with larger amounts of Tracks. The more Tracks there are in your DISCO, the more likely we are to find good results for you.
• For Discovery Suite Subscribers: New Tracks you add to your DISCO are included in results, as long as they are auto-tagged.
• For Supervisors: All New Tracks you addd to your DISCO are automatically added to your Similarity Search.

Performing a Similarity Search

There are a few ways to do this:

Search with a YouTube URL

1. Paste a URL from YouTube into the search bar at the top of your DISCO.
2. Similarity Search will return results that are found to be the most similar Tracks in your DISCO. The results are in order of similarity, meaning the most similar track is at the top.
   

Search with a DISCO Track share URL

1. Copy a share URL for any Track in your DISCO.
   
2. Paste the URL into the search bar at the top of your DISCO.
   

Browse through your Tracks

In the Track panel, click on the Similar tracks tab to find similar sounding Tracks. The results are in order of similarity, meaning the most similar Track is at the top.

Providing real-time feedback on Similarity Search

We'd love it if you'd help us make our Similarity Search better! When you see results you think are a great fit, or maybe not so much, you can give us feedback in that moment:

1. Hover over a Track in the search results and click the thumbs-up icon 👍.
   
2. Select 👍 Similar or 👎 Not similar.
   

You can also give feedback on Tracks from the Similar tracks tab:

Frequently asked questions

Who can access Similarity Search?

Similarity Search is available to all Supervisors and Discovery Suite subscribers. 

How accurate is Similarity Search?

We've done a lot of testing and we believe it provides accurate results most of the time. However, there are a few factors that will impact the accuracy of the results, including:

• The amount of Tracks in your DISCO. The more Tracks you have, the greater the chance of finding similar Tracks. 
• The amount of Tracks you have auto-tagged (as a Discovery Suite subscriber). You might have a large amount of Tracks in your DISCO, but only a portion may be auto-tagged. Only auto-tagged Tracks appear in Similarity Search. To increase the accuracy of your results, make sure to auto-tag as many Tracks as you can. 
• The sound of your Tracks. For example, if most of your Tracks are rock and punk, then finding similar Tracks to a classical or soul song is unlikely. Not impossible, but unlikely! We'll still provide results of what we deem most similar, but the accuracy may be lower.
• The quality of the reference Track. If you are searching with a YouTube video and that video is very low quality, has a lot of voiceover, or is a mashup of many other songs, then the accuracy of results may be lower also. If you can, always search using the cleanest and best possible quality video you can find.

How long after auto-tagging a Track before I can see Similar Tracks in my DISCO?

This may vary a little bit depending on the time of day. Generally speaking, results should start showing within 5-10 minutes.

Can I search just a section of a video or Track?

No - Similarity Search is always performed on the entire video or song.

Can I filter or refine my search results?

No.

Does it work on DISCO Catalogs?

No.

Why am I seeing duplicate results?

When you perform a search you may find that some of your results are showing multiple times. This is because we are showing all results in your DISCO, even if they are duplicates of one another. So if you find duplicates, that means you have multiples of the same Track in your DISCO. You can either ignore this, or choose to merge the Tracks to clean up your DISCO.

In rare cases, you might even find that the Track you've been searching for with a YouTube link itself is showing up. That happens if the Track you are searching for exists in your DISCO already.

My YouTube search failed, what can I do?

If a search fails and no results are provided, it may be because of one of the following reasons:

• Lack of auto-tagged Tracks (for Discovery Suite subscribers). Tracks are added to Similarity Search results through auto-tagging. If you haven't auto-tagged any Tracks in your DISCO, you won't see any results when using Similarity Search.
• Territory Restrictions. Most likely that there are territory restrictions on the video and we cannot access it for analysis. In this case, here's a few things to try:
  • Find another version of the song on YouTube and try again. 
  • Find a cover of the song that is as similar to the original as possible. 
  • If you happen to have an MP3 of the song already, upload it to DISCO and try it that way.
  • The very same restrictions may also lead to a situation where you search for a video in DISCO, and results are displayed, but the video itself won't play. Even though the video won't play in DISCO, the results can still be trusted.
    
•  Length of the video. Ensure that videos are no longer than 30 minutes. If there are certain parts of the video you want to find similar audio for, try to find just that scene (e.g. if it was from a movie) in its own video and try again.