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zepman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 1, 2010
196
16
Sweden
I have used TunesTEXT for a long time. I liked how easy it was to just have it sitting in the dashboard. Every time I changed song in iTunes it search and added the lyrics for the song.
It has recently stopped working and today the widget was announced discontinued by developer.

What's currently the best widget/app for adding lyrics for iTunes?
I've tested Get Lyrical but would really like a widget or plugin that mostly works in the background and not a real app that's visible in the dock.

I guess it might be best waiting for iTunes 11 before relaying on a new solution because no one really knows what iTunes 11 will be like.
 

toonetown

macrumors newbie
Nov 29, 2012
9
5
I've emailed the developer to see if he would be interested in open-sourcing the widget, so that others (I'm willing) could continue working on it.

Haven't heard back yet from him.
 

applejones

macrumors newbie
Dec 7, 2012
1
0
I was an active user of TunesTEXT as well...

I found a great alternative thats working well for me now called Get Lyrical. Only thing is it's an application, not a widget.

It does works in conjunction with TunesTEXT though, as TunesTEXT will still display the lyrics for you within the widget, but it is now Get Lyrical that is fetching the lyrics from the internets and imbedding the lyrics to your MP3s. The only issue I have is that the lyrics need to be imbedded in the MP3 file before playing for the lyrics to show up in TunesTEXT. It won't display the lyrics at the same time Get Lyrical is imbedding them.

This is how I'm set up as of now.
 
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benfro6

macrumors newbie
Nov 28, 2009
18
38
Agreed, was very sad to see TunesTEXT go. Any hope of anything here? Get Lyrical not only is rather intrusive, but doesn't work all that well for me. Thanks!
 

zipur

macrumors 6502a
Mar 3, 2011
588
84
The great state of Texas
I have used TunesTEXT for a long time. I liked how easy it was to just have it sitting in the dashboard. Every time I changed song in iTunes it search and added the lyrics for the song.
It has recently stopped working and today the widget was announced discontinued by developer.

What's currently the best widget/app for adding lyrics for iTunes?
I've tested Get Lyrical but would really like a widget or plugin that mostly works in the background and not a real app that's visible in the dock.

I guess it might be best waiting for iTunes 11 before relaying on a new solution because no one really knows what iTunes 11 will be like.

I use an app call MiniLyrics and have loved it for years. The down side is that there are so many songs that have the same title it causes MiniLyrics to get confused and ask you which is the correct version. Now the real Pain for me is that these lyrics uses to display on my Ipad. Karaoke on the fly! But on the IPAD as of the latest update Apple for some unknown reason took that feature away!! But MiniLyrics works well on the MBP.

Im gonna take a look at your app and maybe give it a spin.

Here is a screen shoot of how it looks. But it has tons of visual adjustments and options. Screen Shot 2012-12-19 at 8.37.40 PM.png


Has anyone found a comprehensive web site that compares these apps?
Also is it true the the Music companys view this a piracy? just to get he lyrics?
 
Last edited:

MrMister111

macrumors 68040
Jan 28, 2009
3,895
381
UK
Any update on this please? I really need a widget (or at a push an app), that embeds lyrics easily. I'm also after an album art widget, the old one seems to not bring back any results now

Anyone got one? I have a new iMac on Mountain Lion v10.8.3, using iTunes 11 if that is relevant

cheers
 
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zepman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 1, 2010
196
16
Sweden
Sadly I didn't find a widget that had similar functionality as TunesText. Get Lyrical seemed to be the app that worked the best for me.
Most of my music already have lyrics form years of use of TunesText. I, more or less, only need to add lyrics to new music I add and for that Get Lyrical works ok.

To determinate which music don't have lyrics in iTunes, I used a script that makes a playlist of those songs. After that I used Get Lyrical to find lyrics for those songs. It didn't find lyrics to all, but a lot of them got lyrics. To update the playlist just run the script again. You might have to add lyrics to the last couple of songs manually if you want all your iTunes tracks to have lyrics.
 

Ice-Cube

macrumors 6502a
Jul 27, 2006
756
339
Somewhere over the rainbow
I use musiXmatch from the Mac App Store. It doesn't save the lyrics automatically, but it retrieves from the internet for you on song changes. You have the option to save the lyrics if you like.
 

zipur

macrumors 6502a
Mar 3, 2011
588
84
The great state of Texas
Here's my update. I sent an email to Apple who replied with a cock and bull story line that it they do not support lyrics on apple devices due to license rights laws. Pandora offer lyrics so what's the deal.
I still roll with MiniLyrics on my MBP; works great, I even noticed it save the lyrics In the properties of the song automatically. But all for nothing if I can't See the lyrics on my iPhone or iPad.
 

old-wiz

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2008
8,331
228
West Suburban Boston Ma
It is true that Apple no longer supports lyric download programs - the record labels consider this piracy - the labels feel that the free lyric sites get ads and the labels do not get a cut.

Virtually all of the lyric sites are targets for the record labels since the labels don't get paid.
 

jcusick

macrumors newbie
Feb 24, 2008
13
4
Phoenix, AZ
Singer Song Reader is Current Best iTunes Lyrics utility and it's Free!

I've been adding lyrics to iTunes for many years now and lived through all the "problems" i.e. many different utilities that eventually stop working and also lyrics not showing on iDevices after system updates (then eventually Apple decided to put them back.) Used Pearl Lyrics initially then when it fizzled I used the TunesText wiget for many years. TunesText stopped downloading lyrics and had many updates for problems when it was in use. Eventually I found and switched to Get Lyrical and it worked for the last 3 plus years. It worked OK, but like all of the others it is no longer supported and was limping along. Now with iTunes 11.3.1 even Get Lyrical is starting to download gibberish and slow things down. I've tried MiniLyrics with some success (weird scrolling of lyrics is very annoying) but I just found Singer Song Reader (SSR) and it seems to be the best yet! It searches from WAY more Lyric sites and has been finding 95% of the lyrics that Get Lyrical couldn't find when it was working well (I had a playlist of "Lyrics Not Found" and SSR is finding lyrics for the majority of these files). SSR can be customized so the artist/track and lyric site may or may not be embedded into the lyrics. It can automatically embed lyrics into the files and can even do batch processing like Get Lyrical. I just wanted to share because it is so hard to find lyrics tools for the mac that work on the latest software, circa Aug 2014.
 

benfro6

macrumors newbie
Nov 28, 2009
18
38
Using Singer Song Reader (with autosave enabled in preferences) with Needle Drop was a strong solution to my long standing problem. Many thanks for this input.
 

matrix07

macrumors G3
Jun 24, 2010
8,226
4,894
I agree Singer Song Reader is pretty great. It also shows the album your song in, and artist info from iTunes. Nice.
The only downside is it's an app, not a widget.

itunesAuzQR.jpg


PS: great tool like this you need to support it. pls donate to it here:
http://www.singer-song-reader.com/donation
 
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Razorhog

macrumors 65816
Sep 16, 2006
1,148
116
Arkansas
Resurrecting this thread to say thanks for the heads up about Singer Song Reader. Seems to work well. I'll donate!
 
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