When a user gets interested in some music he/she listens to somewhere, for example, in a coffee shop, the user records that music in a memory provided in a portable terminal. A processor reads the information recorded in the memory and performs a predetermined process on it. The resultant information is stored on a storage device. The information stored on the storage device is then transferred to a remote server via a communication device. The remote server searches the database for the title of the music corresponding to the received information and the singer's name, and returns the results to the terminal. Thus, the user can easily get information about the title of the music and the singer's name.