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Why don't songs on iTunes have lyrics?

3bs

3bs

macrumors 603
Original poster
May 20, 2011
5,434
24
Dublin, Ireland
They have album artwork and all the rest but they don't have lyrics. Why not? Has this ever been mentioned by Apple to be something they'll add in the future? I know I can manually search and add lyrics but that takes too long and 3rd party apps like Tagalicious don't always find the lyrics for even popular songs.

Recently I've noticed that when I add lyrics to a song and sync them to my iPhone, the lyrics don't show up for some songs. I'm not sure why because I can see them on iTunes on my mac.
 
mkrishnan

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
3bs said:
Has this ever been mentioned by Apple to be something they'll add in the future?
Click to expand...

The issue of apps that automate pulling lyrics off the internet aside, Apple did talk about this back in 2009...

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/apple-liveblog-999/

Wired said:
On the software end of the spectrum, Apple released a new version of its media player, iTunes 9. With this new version of iTunes, Apple is now selling music albums in a new format called iTunes LP, which packages albums with various pieces of multimedia, including sleeve notes, song lyrics and art. Clearly, this is Apple’s move to boost digital album sales in its iTunes Store.
Click to expand...

The feature was part of the iTunes LP experience. I don't know how many albums on iTunes give you lyrics as part of the LP, but the premise was that all of these extras only came with the purchase of the full album via iTunes, and there has never (AFAIK) been an expansion into providing this content on a per-song basis. Also I don't buy full albums on iTunes, but I think what you get is a digital booklet with the kind of stuff that's in the CD jacket booklet, as opposed to having the song lyrics put in plain text in the lyrics field of the song (which is what the third-party apps do).

It'd be nice if they had this as an option and if studios released songs this way (and even better if it were added in such a way that iTunes Match could get you the lyrics). Of course, some songs do not have published lyrics.
 
O

old-wiz

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2008
8,331
228
West Suburban Boston Ma
The record companies don't want lyrics provided in iTunes - they feel it would make it easier for pirates. There are sites that do provide the lyrics as other posters have mentioned, but the RIAA regards these sites as aiding piracy.
 
The Economist

The Economist

Suspended
Apr 4, 2011
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40
Mexico
old-wiz said:
The record companies don't want lyrics provided in iTunes - they feel it would make it easier for pirates. There are sites that do provide the lyrics as other posters have mentioned, but the RIAA regards these sites as aiding piracy.
Click to expand...

What do lyrics have to do with piracy? Honest question.
 
From A Buick 8

From A Buick 8

macrumors 68040
Sep 16, 2010
3,114
127
Ky Close to CinCinnati
The Economist said:
What do lyrics have to do with piracy? Honest question.
Click to expand...

If you have the lyrics you can just sing the song and then you would not need to buy the song or....

If you know the actual lyrics you would realize what utter cap the song is and all you really liked was the rhythmic beat, and you can achieve the same thing with an un balanced washing machine.
 
The Economist

The Economist

Suspended
Apr 4, 2011
293
40
Mexico
From A Buick 8 said:
If you have the lyrics you can just sing the song and then you would not need to buy the song or....

If you know the actual lyrics you would realize what utter cap the song is and all you really liked was the rhythmic beat, and you can achieve the same thing with an un balanced washing machine.
Click to expand...

I once tried to sing to Shazam but it didn't work. Maybe I'm just a lousy singer.


old-wiz said:
Understanding that would require you to go into the diseased minds of record company executives.

I agree that it doesn't make sense, but it's what the record companies do.
Click to expand...

I see, I wasn't aware that lyrics meant trouble for record companies.
 
3bs

3bs

macrumors 603
Original poster
May 20, 2011
5,434
24
Dublin, Ireland
GGJstudios said:
I use Get Lyrical to find lyrics for single or multiple tracks, and it works quite well.
Click to expand...
Can't seem to get it to work. After I open it my toolbar doesn't change to Get Lyrical like it would if I open any other app. It stays as whatever app I had before. I can't click on anything on the app and it's all like greyed out. I can't even quit the app I have to force quit it.


mkrishnan said:
The issue of apps that automate pulling lyrics off the internet aside, Apple did talk about this back in 2009...

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/apple-liveblog-999/



The feature was part of the iTunes LP experience. I don't know how many albums on iTunes give you lyrics as part of the LP, but the premise was that all of these extras only came with the purchase of the full album via iTunes, and there has never (AFAIK) been an expansion into providing this content on a per-song basis. Also I don't buy full albums on iTunes, but I think what you get is a digital booklet with the kind of stuff that's in the CD jacket booklet, as opposed to having the song lyrics put in plain text in the lyrics field of the song (which is what the third-party apps do).

It'd be nice if they had this as an option and if studios released songs this way (and even better if it were added in such a way that iTunes Match could get you the lyrics). Of course, some songs do not have published lyrics.
Click to expand...

Yeah I never buy whole albums so it would be nice if they added it for single songs. Thanks for the info.

The Economist said:
I once tried to sing to Shazam but it didn't work. Maybe I'm just a lousy singer.




I see, I wasn't aware that lyrics meant trouble for record companies.
Click to expand...

I hear that you can sing or hum to SoundHound and it'll find the song. I've never tried and I prefer Shazam anyway.

----------

Can anyone explain why when I manually add the lyrics to songs they don't always show up on my iPhone?
 
GGJstudios

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
3bs said:
Can't seem to get it to work. After I open it my toolbar doesn't change to Get Lyrical like it would if I open any other app. It stays as whatever app I had before. I can't click on anything on the app and it's all like greyed out. I can't even quit the app I have to force quit it.
Click to expand...
You may need to reinstall it. Also, you can check their site to find out if there are any known compatibility issues with whatever version of Mac OS X you're running. I've never had such problems on Leopard or Snow Leopard.
 
3bs

3bs

macrumors 603
Original poster
May 20, 2011
5,434
24
Dublin, Ireland
GGJstudios said:
You may need to reinstall it. Also, you can check their site to find out if there are any known compatibility issues with whatever version of Mac OS X you're running. I've never had such problems on Leopard or Snow Leopard.
Click to expand...

I tried reinstalling but it still won't work. I'm on 10.7.2
 
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