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What software do you use to automatically add lyrics to MP3 files?

I mean the kind of software that can scan your entire music library and do the job.

I want to add lyrics to my MP3 files so that when I'm listening to music on my iPhone I can see the lyrics on the screen.

Thank you very much for helping me (why not the entire internet?) to find the best software out there.

Edit: operating systems / media players I use: Mac OS X, Windows 7 / iTunes, Windows Media Player

Although I primarily use Mac OS X/Windows and iTunes/Windows Media Player, I don't want to limit this question to a specific operating system/Media Player. This way If you know any piece of software that does the job in whatever operating system/media player, please share your super user power in your answer.


EDIT:

I've written a post on my blog to showcase my findings regarding this question. Check it out:

Software to add Lyrics to MP3 files ID3 metadata

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very good question! I'm interested in that myself! +1 – studiohack Jun 13 '10 at 2:07
can you clarify what operating system? – studiohack Jun 13 '10 at 2:08
@studiohack: I edited the question adding the operating system information. – Leniel Macaferi Jun 13 '10 at 4:14
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protected by studiohack May 20 '11 at 2:34

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6 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

On my Windows machine, I use MediaMonkey to manage my music collection (~30GB), along with a number of addons, specifically Lyricator in your case.

It is so fast and can handle large numbers of files. The only concern you might have is not getting your IP blocked since it can be heavy on the lyrics servers side !

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Does something like this exist for linux as well? – tapan Jun 13 '10 at 4:07
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just installed MediaMonkey and Lyricator. Tried it and it does the job wonderfully. Thank you very much for sharing this. MediaMonkey is a fantastic software (really powerful) - it even syncs with iPhone. Great! :). Let's see if people come with a great solution/answer like this for Windows Media Player and iTunes and other operating systems like Linux. – Leniel Macaferi Jun 13 '10 at 4:18
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Im sure there are lots of similar addons for Amarok/Rythmbox/Songbird/etc... A quick search gave this: lyrics.wikia.com/LyricWiki:Plugins – merv Jun 14 '10 at 16:42
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There is an official ID3v2 tag for supporting lycrics, so using a tag editor, you can save the lyrics to a tag which means that any media software (all do, to a greater or lesser extent) that supports ID3v2 should be able to display the embedded lyrics.

I use Mp3tag for my music collection although there are others. For lyrics support I use this script http://forums.mp3tag.de/index.php?showtopic=2184

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I have written a small Python program for myself, using the Mutagen library for editing ID3 tags. It works on all platforms that Python can run on.


A small snippet:

def write_id3(file, lyrics):
    tag = mutagen.mp3.MP3(file)
    atom = u"USLT::'eng'"
    if lyrics is None:
        if atom in tag: del tag[atom]
    else:
        tag[atom] = mutagen.id3.USLT()
        tag[atom].text = lyrics
        tag[atom].encoding = 1
        tag[atom].lang = "eng"
        tag[atom].desc = u""
    tag.save()

def read_id3(file):
    tag = mutagen.mp3.MP3(file)
    try:
        return tag[u"USLT::'eng'"].text
    except KeyError:
        return None
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On Windows, running python setup.py bdist_wininst will package the Python module to a single .exe installer in `dist\` – grawity Jun 13 '10 at 17:00
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I mainly use iTunes for music management on both my PC and MacBook.

On Windows, I use EvilLyrics while on OSX, I use GimmeSomeTunes for the same thing.

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TagRunner Rocks! Download Page

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My favorite way to bulk add lyrics is using a program called Zortam. I did a comprehensive blog post on adding lyrics: http://loveyourmusic.tv/content/adding-lyrics-your-tracks-why-you-need-do-it-and-how-get-it-done

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