How to: Word up! Find lyrics for your iTunes music
Last night my daughter asked me to find and print the lyrics Nickelback’s Rockstar (she’ll get the expurgated version). Shortly thereafter I realized that pearLyric, my long time go to application and Dashboard (a veritable one-two punch) for lyrics, had stopped functioning and there isn’t a new version available either. Drat.
Well, after a bit o’ research and testing here are three iTunes lyric finders that are free, recently updated and will, with varying degrees of sophistication, get the job done.
TunesTEXT is also Dashboard widget that offers some neat features, including the ability to toggle artwork in the display, the ability to search three databases simultaneously (Utamap, MetroLyrics, Sing365), seven color combination choices for the user interface, and the ability to edit and save lyrics to the iTunes library.
Also, and this is something no other lyric tool I found has, the ability to stop/start and skip to the next/previous track right inside the application itself.
Download TunesTEXT 0.8.1 now
— Easy to use, free, nice user interface & features, instant Dashboard access
— Doesn’t print
iClip Lyrics performs the basic function finding and delivering the desired words to my Mac. The interface is simplicity defined and you can edit lyrics inside the app. However, you cannot print from within the app itself, meaning you will need to copy-paste to TextEdit or another application.
Download iClip Lyrics 1.4.0 now (1.3MB)
— Easy to use, free, viewable/editable clipboard, it’s an application not a widget
— Doesn’t print
Get Lyrical does what is supposed, but takes the whole simplicity a step too far. This application is comprised of a single pallet with three buttons—Tag Selection, Tag Current, Active Tagging—and the only way to tell whether or not lyrics are coming in is to highlight the track in iTunes and look for them (⌘ + I, click Lyrics).
Download Get Lyrical 3.1.5 now
— Free, absolute minimum functionality
— No display, no printing, no editing
I limited my choices to applications that have been updated in recent months, though I did spend time looking specifically for one that would print — no luck.
Personally, I pitched out both iClip and Get Lyrical, and will be using tunesTEXT going forward. Printing aside (is there a iTunes lyric app that allows printing), this Dashboard widget offers instant access and some very, very nice features.
What are you using to find and import lyrics into iTunes? Whatever it is jot us a note and share the link in the comments below…
See also:
— See what happened… (to pearLyrics)
— Get Nickelback’s Rockstar (iTunes)
— Get William Orbit’s Strange Cargos (iTunes)
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April 26th, 2009
GimmieSomeTune.
May 16th, 2009
Wow…excellent review and just what I was looking for. Tunes Text is the way to go! Thanks for doing the leg work.
November 5th, 2009
Go with get lyrical