Our Verdict
With iTunes 5 , Apple introduced an oftentimes - request feature : The ability to salt away Sung dynasty lyrics in your iTunes Library . By accessing a caterpillar tread ’s Info windowpane ( single file : Get Info ) , you could switch to the Lyrics tab and type or paste that track ’s lyric poem . Even well , if you ’ve get a newiPod nano , iTunes mechanically syncs those lyrics to the nano , where they can be displayed during playback . ( It ’s only a matter of clock time before someone free an iTunes Visualizer plugin that display these words on your computer screen during playback . )
But now that they ’ve finally get this feature film , the great unwashed are asking for another one : a way toactually get the lyrics . Unlike track info , which iTunes can automatically retrieve via the onlineCDDB , iTunes includes no way to automatically regain words for a song . You have to expend your World Wide Web - surfing attainment to find them manually — via dedicated language Web internet site or our old palGoogle — and then paste them into iTunes , one raceway at a time . Not precisely an tempting proposal , specially if you ’ve set out a sizable medicine Library .
I mistrust that Apple will eventually add automatonlike lyric - fetching capabilities to iTunes , but until then , I ’m love PearWorks ’ freepearLyrics 0.5 ( ) . Available as both an practical app and a Dashboard gizmo , pearLyrics monitors what track iTunes is currently play and then look for seven different lyric Web internet site to retrieve the lyrics for that song . Assuming you have the “ Copy lyrics to iTunes ” option contain , pearLyrics automatically copy those find lyrics to iTunes ’ Lyrics field . Each prison term the song change , pearLyrics mechanically search for the new racetrack ’s words . ( The status Browning automatic rifle note of hand which World Wide Web site provided the lyric ; for good example , lyricsondemand.com . ) I opt to apply the pearLyrics gismo , which inconspicuously updates lyric poem in the background .
If you ’re a musician , the “ wait for chords first ” option automatically looks for guitar chords , which are returned or else of ( or , sometimes , in improver to ) full lyrics ; if no chords are found , pearLyrics will explore for lyrics only .
If you do n’t desire to have to listen to tracks just to fetch their language , pearLyrics can also automatically search for lyric for all birdsong in a exceptional play list , or even your intact Library , via the file cabinet : Cache Lyrics for Playlist command . ( word of advice : This could take a while with a large Library . )
PearLyrics is impertinent enough to realize when a lead already has words in iTunes ; if so , it display those lyric poem instead of research the vane .
Unfortunately , pearLyrics ca n’t do miracle ; if none of the lyric Web site reelect the lyric for a track , pearLyrics simply says , “ Sorry , no lyrics rule . ” However , if you ’re using the pearLyrics widget , you get an additional option : “ Click here to ask Google . ” This opens your Web web internet browser to a Google search for that track ; chances are at least one of the hits will contain the words , which you may manually copy from the Web web site and then paste into iTunes .
In my experience , pearLyrics has a surprisingly high rate of winner in finding song lyrics , even when a track ’s claim in iTunes is slightly different than the title(s ) listed on the lyrics Web sites . That allege , I ’ve experience a few minor quirks . For one , if you skip track at the inst pearLyrics is looking up lyrics , it can sometimes paste the lyric from the Sung dynasty it was look up ( the previous Sung ) into the Lyrics field of the current song . secondly , if it ca n’t find the words to a Song dynasty , pearLyrics lets you manually edit the hunting parameter and lookup again ; however , if it finds lyrics based on your modified search , it does n’t automatically copy those lyrics to iTunes — you need to copy and paste them manually . Finally , sometimes playback pauses for an instant as pearLyrics copies language into iTunes ; to be fair , this latter issue seems to be a flaw in iTunes , as sometimes iTunes pauses when I manually paste lyrics into the Info dialogue .
Those military issue aside , pearLyrics is still the best resolution I ’ve yet found for suffer lyrics into iTunes with little to no effort on my part . Any anything that lets me be both lazy and efficient at the same time is a Gem in my al-Qur’an .
The pearLyrics applications call for Mac OS X 10.3 ( Panther ) or later ; The pearLyrics Dashboard widget require Mac OS X 10.4 ( Tiger ) . Both edition need iTunes 5 so as to copy lyric poem to iTunes .
