SoundHound is one of the apps you can use to recognize those songs you hear playing in the background, whether it's in a commercial or in a department store. Now its developers are bumping things up to version 6.3 and giving everything a spiffy new look.

The interface above will probably look similar across platforms.

Overall, everything is still dark and looks generally SoundHound-y, but stuff has moved around a bit to make music more discoverable. That's what the changelog says, anyway. You can access the search and navigation buttons from anywhere just by swiping from the right. When you're on the home screen, you can view your recent searches and see what's currently popular. Or you can just tap that big orange icon to start listening for sounds.

What's new:

New in 6.3 - Fresh new look for faster music discovery
  • Quickly access the Search button and navigation from anywhere in the app by swiping right
  • On the home screen you can now scroll to explore your search history, hear what's popular, view top videos, discover music on the rise and more...
  • New colorful and dynamic listening screen animation"

To really get an understanding of what's new, here's the press release. The update is still making its way out to the Play Store.

SoundHound Rolls Out Immersive Redesign

New Look and Features Including Beats Music Integration on iOS

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Nov. 11, 2014 – SoundHound Inc., a pioneering company in sound recognition and search technologies, launched a new version of its music search, discovery and play app today. Evolving beyond its trademark music and sing/hum identification, SoundHound has developed into the gateway to all-things music, with a modern and intuitive design, unrivaled features and content to continually delight users. This marks SoundHound’s most significant visual change to the app, which has been used by more than 230 million mobile users around the world. The update is available for iOS and Android mobile devices, globally.

The new SoundHound offers a more intuitive user experience, allowing quicker search access with a colorful look and dynamic listening screen animation, and new and richer content. Additionally, the home screen can now be scrolled to explore personalized search history, discover what's popular, listen to music on the rise, and more. The redesign also has been optimized for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus devices.

  • Improved navigation: Vertical scrolling and horizontal swiping makes it easier and more natural for users to find and engage with content.
  • Accessible orange SoundHound button: Ensures easy access to song identification, regardless of mobile device screen size – the orange button is now always within “thumb reach.”
  • Content at forefront: Users can naturally find and immerse themselves into richer content at the forefront, including access to new songs, “Your History,” videos, charts, featured albums, social media posts, music maps, and more.
  • Free and unlimited usage, and content cards: SoundHound continues to provide unlimited usage for free, supported through advertisement integration. The new SoundHound design enables compelling and relevant content and features to appear dynamically, making sponsored content immersive through native content cards, video integrations, and more.
  • Beats Music integration on iOS devices: Users can find new artists and songs they love, and with one tap within SoundHound, launch Beats for music streaming.

The addition of Beats Music brings an added value to users, who can launch the streaming music platform from within SoundHound to make finding and consuming new music seamless. In addition to Beats Music, users can also find and explore music amongst all of the major music platforms, including Spotify, Rdio, iTunes, YouTube, Pandora and more inside the app experience.

“The new and intuitive design improves the experience for our users who crave quick results, while making it easier to consume fresh and relevant music content,” said James Hom, vice president, product, SoundHound. “We have enriched SoundHound’s position as the gateway to all-things music, with a relentless focus on making the user experience extraordinary.”

SoundHound 6.3 is available for free download via the App Store and Google Play.