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[steveklein]

so i've had mc for a couple years now and i've never quite worked with lyrics. i'd like for all my songs (or at least the ~2000 that i listen to regularly) to have all the lyrics embedded in them. i can just mass delete the lyric field because i'm sure it's full of junk. but is there a way i can import lyrics easily? i've never found a way to do it.

[dcwebman]

Just so you can get an answer, there is no easy way. The best way right now is to use the add-on Lyrics Editor (http://www.dooftoo.com). Perhaps one day there will be an easy way to get/edit/save lyrics in MC much like they have done with cover art.

[bunglemebaby]

As an alternative you can also look to other commercial software and interface to it via MC.
I use a program called Jaikoz to auto lookup and tag lyrics. I can drag from MC to Jaikoz and then 'update library from tags' in MC once Jaikoz has done its thing. The process works reasonably well.
Jaikoz is actually mostly for MusicIP/Musicbrainz lookup though and the price tag would be steep if you just use it for lyric lookup. There are numerous other similar programs out there, but I found any others that I tried to be a poor fit with the way I prefer to do things.

[MrHaugen]

I used to use Evillyrics with a plugin for MC to update things on the fly. I also used a different one to get the ones Evillyrics missed, but I can't remember the name. This plugins worked for MC12, but I don't know if any of them have been updated to support MC14.

[shoshaw]

MiniLyrics will download lyrics on the fly. 

http://www.crintsoft.com/

The program provides a window with scrolling lyrics.  In the options, you can choose to have the lyrics automatically written into the MP3 file's ID3v2 tag as sychronized lyrics.  MiniLyrics can be added to MC as a plugin and will launch automatically.  It's pretty cool!

[Amadan]

(...)  In the options, you can choose to have the lyrics automatically written into the MP3 file's ID3v2 tag as sychronized lyrics.  MiniLyrics can be added to MC as a plugin and will launch automatically.  It's pretty cool!

Didn't know that proggy, but it's indeed cool. Thank you!   The only thing i don't understand: if i let MiniLyrics write the lyrics to the Id3V2 Tag i can't see them in MC. I tried to update the library from the file tags, but that didn't help.

Did you get that working?

[shoshaw]

I noticed the same thing.  I have not spent much time trying to figure it out.  I'm just happy to see the lyrics!

[rick.ca]

For some time I've been looking for a way to efficiently find and download lyrics, as well as to display synchronized lyrics. While one solution would be nice, it seems important to recognize these are two separate requirements. One is to populate (hopefully automatically) the Lyrics tag with unsynchronized lyrics. These are useful for searching or displaying just for information purposes—whether or not the track is playing. The second is to display synchronized lyrics. MC does not have the ability to do this, so another program or plugin is required to do so.

MiniLyrics keeps coming up as a potential solution. I suppose it's one of few cheap alternatives. While it seems to come very close to satisfying my requirements, each time I try it I conclude it just doesn't "play friendly" with MC. This time, I decided to take a closer look...

Unsynchronized Lyrics

As others have noted, MiniLyrics will find, download and tag MP3 files (I don't know about other types) with unsynchronized lyrics, but they are not displayed in MC's lyrics field. I don't understand much about file tags, so I'll just describe what I've found. Using MP3Tag, I can see the lyrics are saved in an extended tag called UNSYNCEDLYRICS. (I'm sure it's saving a synchronized tag as well, but I can't see it in MP3Tag.) There is a difference in how different programs are saving this tag:

• MC – ||[lyrics] (the "||" is not displayed in MC)
• MP3Tag – eng||[lyrics] (the lyrics are properly displayed in MC)
• MiniLyrics – eng|Lyrics was Saved by MiniLyrics.|[lyrics]

I suppose the "||" is meant to separate the tag into different sections for different languages, and MiniLyrics breaks this. This can be fixed by deleting "Lyrics was Saved by MiniLyrics."—or, more specifically, what's making it unreadable by MC are the single "|". Deleting both of them, or leaving "||" or "eng||" at the beginning of the first line allows the lyrics to be displayed.

Editing the tag saved by MiniLyrics with a tag editor is obviously not a viable solution. The tag must be readable by other applications, so maybe this is something J River will see fit to make MC able to do so as well.

In the meantime, the least painful way I can find to tag lyrics using MiniLyrics is this:

• Open a MiniLyrics window and a MC tagging window set on the Lyrics field.
• Right-click on the MiniLyrics window and select Lyrics - Advanced Save Lyrics Options...
• This opens a dialog from which the lyrics can be copied & pasted to the MC tagging window.
• Select Next to advance to next track, and repeat.

The same thing can be done using an open lyrics editor window, but unsynchronized lyrics have to be loaded first (unless that's all it can find, it defaults to synchronized).

MiniLyrics Window

MiniLyrics opens its display, editor and other dialogs in what appear to be MC child windows. Unfortunately, this seems rather pointless, as they are still pretty much independent of MC. This means one has to make screen space for it where it won't interfere with MC, set it to be "on top" and then turn this off or minimize it when using something other than MC. It would be so much more convenient if it could be opened in a split pane. My workaround is to open a split pane, and place the MiniLyrics window over the second pane.

The nature of the MiniLyrics window, however, allows it to be used with Theater View—sort of. It can be configured to overlay a music and/or playing now view so it's not covering other critical information. Hot keys programmed to a remote could be used to for hide the window when using other views. The problem is the same window is not going to work for both Theater View and Standard View. I don't see an easy way to save/switch configurations.

Conclusion

If the tagging problem could be resolved, I think MiniLyrics would be a reasonable (and cheap) solution for MC users with a casual interest in lyrics.

Maybe someone who understands how these things work can explain what potential there might be for it to be more tightly integrated with MC (e.g., to be able to use panes as well as detached windows in Standard View).