Abstract: The method and apparatus of the invention relate to identifying a streaming audio signal. The method and apparatus store a plurality of reference audio signals, and receive an audio signal to be identified. A segment of the received audio signal is selected and converted into the frequency domain. It is then sequentially compared to a converted segment, of corresponding length, of a reference signal or signals stored in data storage. This is performed in the frequency domain. The comparison correlates frequency power peaks at each frequency of interest in the received and corresponding reference signal frequency domain representations, and recognizes the received signal as the reference signal when the number of comparisons is properly compared with regard to a threshold value.