How to play Songless
Songless is a guess-the-song game. You hear a very short piece of a song and try to name it with as little of the song as possible. Here are the rules, how scoring works, and some tips to get better.
The Daily Ladder
Every day at 00:00 UTC a new Daily Ladder unlocks. It has five hit songs picked from the 1980s to today. Everyone in the world plays the same five songs that day.
- Press play. You hear one second of the song. The clip can come from anywhere in the track, not just the intro.
- Guess or skip. Start typing a title or artist and pick the song from the suggestions. Not sure? Skip to unlock a longer clip.
- Move on. Once a song is solved or you run out of clips, go on to the next song.
- Share. After the fifth song you get your score out of 500 and a spoiler-free grid to share.
Clip lengths and scoring
Each song gives you four tries. A skip or a wrong guess both use up a try and unlock the next clip.
| Try | Clip length | Points if solved |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 second | 100 |
| 2 | 3 seconds | 70 |
| 3 | 6 seconds | 40 |
| 4 | 12 seconds | 20 |
The best possible score is 500: every song guessed from the first one-second clip.
Songless Unlimited
Can't wait until tomorrow? Songless Unlimited gives you random songs with no daily limit. Each correct guess adds one to your streak, and you can pick the decades and genres you want to practise. Miss a song and the streak resets.
Tips to guess the song faster
- Place the era first. Production gives the decade away fast: synth pads point to the 80s, grunge guitars to the 90s, and trap hi-hats to the 2010s or later.
- Listen for the instrument, not the words. One second rarely has a full lyric, but a distinctive riff, drum fill or vocal tone often gives the song away.
- Search by artist. The guess box matches artist names too, so if you recognise the voice, type the artist and scan their songs.
- Skip early when you're lost. A wrong guess and a skip cost the same, so a skip is better than a wild guess.
- Practise in Unlimited. Playing one decade or genre at a time in Unlimited is the fastest way to train your ear.
Is it free?
Yes. Songless on songless.info is free, runs in your browser on phone or desktop, and needs no account. Clips are official previews from Apple Music.