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I use OSD Lyrics and CoverGloobus. They are good, they search and eventually download lyrics, when they can find them. The sources used by OSD Lyrics, for example, are rather limited (although I love the way it displays them. The latter accesses a reacher database, but the display is not adjustable as far as I know). Couldn't find a way to make these programs see lyrics from a file selected by me.

What I want is to be able to add the lyrics myself, and even to embed them into the music file - and, of course, to display them from there. The last feature alone would be very valuable to me, as I have a large music database with lyrics already embedded, but I cannot see them with these programs: they are just looking for new lyrics on the Internet, although the lyrics are on my computer.

In Windows I used Foobar2000 to find, display and embed lyrics (with the add-on lyricsgrabber) and when I needed to add the lyrics manually I used to embed them in MediaMonkey (this player allows finding them, but also editing and embedding - just by copy/paste). I am not able to run MediaMonkey in Wine. Foobar works, but with a lot of problems. And anyway, Wine is of last resort.

I am looking for a Linux program that would be able to do something similar to what I have described above.

3 Answers 3

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I use aTunes, which is a java-based Music Player, that also fetches lyrics from an internet-database for most of my music. It is highly customize-able, meaning, that you can change the column view(s) to your liking, add different lyric sources, add/play radio stations etc..

aTunes aTunes

The lyrics are stored here: ~/.atunes/aTunes.log.
However, it is even easier to add new lyrics and edit older once (i forgot to mention it in the first place).

  • Right click on your track of choice and choose either Edit Tag or Set Lyrics automatically from the pop-up dialog.
  • In your case it would be Edit Tag, which opens another dialog, where you can copy/paste your lyrics to, which are then shown like suggested in the next screenshot (under Song)

aTunes

You also request quick access to specific tracks, which can be archived through the Filter search-filed or by changing the view option of the column. As you can see in the screenshot below, there are a few great features, like:

  • Song
  • Album
  • Artist
  • YouTube
  • Similar
  • and another one, which you can look up yourself (:

aTunes<code>enter code here</code>

Interface GUI:

enter image description here

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  • Could you add a few instructions on how to use/display/edit lyrics in aTunes? Can it see/display my already embedded lyrics?
    – user47206
    Mar 24, 2012 at 18:46
  • I edited my answer and put in some more information.
    – v2r
    Mar 24, 2012 at 20:21
  • I added another screenshot (: If you use the same setting like suggested, the interface should change. Maybe restart aTunes and see if it works. I use version 2.1.0 by the way. Hope it works!
    – v2r
    Mar 24, 2012 at 20:45
  • You are welcome! Very customizable indeed. If the Devs fix some minor bugs/issues in the next version it is definitely a great Player. --enjoy aTunes
    – v2r
    Mar 24, 2012 at 20:57
  • For me it works and that in fact is why i suggested it to you as a possible solution.
    – v2r
    Apr 4, 2012 at 18:08
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Have you looked at Quod Libet? (disclaimer: I'm one of the current devs). It's popular with a lot of ex-Foobar2000 users. QL (plus associated tagger Ex Falso) has lyrics support via text files linked to the lyrics (for cross-format support mainly). These are editable in-place (via "Information", somewhat confusingly)

There is also now a viewlyrics plugin too for automatically viewing the current song's lyrics. You don't mention audio formats, if it's mp3, there are recent talks of supporting embedded ID3 lyrics, so add your support there if you're interested.

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  • Could you add a few instructions on how to use/display/edit lyrics in Quod Libet? It does not seem to see my already embedded lyrics.
    – user47206
    Mar 24, 2012 at 18:45
  • i use mp3 and flac mostly.. as for adding (give it you mean) my support, it's hard enough for me just to be able to ask for it :-)
    – user47206
    Mar 24, 2012 at 21:01
  • 1
    Get the latest build from here: code.google.com/p/quodlibet/wiki/… This has the viewlyrics plugin already, for viewing lyrics for the playing song automatically (a new panel appears). To edit lyrics, right-click a song, select Information, then the second tab is for lyrics. For embedded lyrics support, that page is your best bet, even if it's just starring that issue. There are hundreds of open issues and only a handful of devs, you see..
    – declension
    Mar 29, 2012 at 21:40
  • in order to see my media library as i want to, i use "view" - "file system" as i have my music on an external disk with customized folders . in this case, the embedded (or otherwise online) lyrics doesn't seem to appear as a separate panel as expected (?). what are your settings regarding "view" etc so as to make the lyrics panel visible ? i cannot see that panel, would you tell me your settings related to that - i would greatly appreciate it. i currently use 2.4 - 1. version of quod libet
    – user47206
    Apr 3, 2012 at 17:26
  • 1
    For support on that plugin you'll have to contact the original developer, but the main thing to do is check that the lyrics are visible by QL: right click on the song, select information then the lyrics tab. If you can't see/edit them there, that's the problem, and you'll need to bulk-import them somehow. If you can see them, but still not when the song is playing, it sounds like the viewlyrics plugin is disabled / not working.
    – declension
    Apr 5, 2012 at 17:44
0

gmusicbrowser comes with a Lyrics plugin.

sudo apt install gmusicbrowser

Once activated on the Settings/ Plugins page, it can use lyrics embedded in the .mp3 file, or from a downloaded lyrics file, or it tries some download sites.

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