[DaveiPhone]

OK, now I've figured out how to use the TunesTEXT2Lyrics lyric import utility, and it works quite well! (Sorry PC folks, AFAIK it's for Mac users only)

There's a little Dashboard Widget called TunesText, that you can get here:

http://www.cyanworks.net/downloads/TunesTEXT0.7.4.zip

This is basically a Mac version of the Lyric utility, but it's a bit more advanced. It has multiple search engines, you can control iTunes from it, it finds many more lyrics, and when it fails to find them automatically, you can type or paste lyrics into it.

It saves the lyrics into individual song plist files, sorted into Artist folders, at this location:

~/Library/Application Support/TunesTEXT

To test it, I sorted my playlist in iTunes by Artist, then started playing at the first song of an artist, then opened the Widget. As it acquired the lyrics, I chose next song until I had all the lyrics for that Artist. Not only did it create the lyrics files, it also simultaneously added them into the song for viewing in iTunes on your computer.

To convert those files to iPhone Lyrics compatible files, I launched TunesTEXT2Lyrics, and dropped the Artist folder from ~/Library/Application Support/TunesTEXT/ onto the window. Poof! It created a folder on my Desktop called Lyrics with a single plist (named for the Artist) containing all those songs. I added that to my Lyrics Folder on the phone, then added the artist name and path to the LYLibraryCache.plist. As if by magic, all those songs worked perfectly within Lyrics on the phone.

I retested this dragging multiple artist folders as well, and this worked perfectly too. In addition, the program creates a file called LYBlackList.plist which contains a list of any songs that were in the Artist.plist that were missing the lyrics.

Hope that's clear.

[EmoRebellion]

Is there a way to change the lyric server it checks? Maybe we can find a more complete one. I know there are utilities for winamp that automatically grab the lyrics from online.

How large of a music library do you have Dave? How large is the Lyrics folder?

[DaveiPhone]

Originally Posted by EmoRebellion

Is there a way to change the lyric server it checks? Maybe we can find a more complete one. (snip)
How large of a music library do you have Dave? How large is the Lyrics folder?

Unfortunately, the developer hard-coded the server check and it looks pretty complex to try to change that (just changing the URL won't work).

I've got over 25000 songs in iTunes on my computer, but only 1100 or so on my phone. I still haven't filled in all the lyrics, but I'm guessing that the completed lyrics will take about 2MB on my phone.

[iphoneguy2007]

I'm sorry, I'm having trouble getting this to work. I've checked my permissions -- they're set to 755. Is this correct? I've also manually created a new folder in the /var/root/Media directory. what else should i do? thanks!

[verbalist]

u cann add lyrics tru itunes

[kurosh]

Originally Posted by verbalist

u cann add lyrics tru itunes

how is that


btw this app is great, props on finding it, and thanks for the english versions of everything!!!!

[DaveiPhone]

I wrote to the developer and he was kind enough to reply, and to convert his version to English. There's also a repository now, if you add it to Installer you can download it from there.

http://hpcgi3.nifty.com/moyashi/ipod...repository.cgi

You can download it manually here:

http://lyrics-app.googlecode.com/fil...uch-v0.021.zip

His new version flashes Japanese initially still, as he forgot to update the Default.png but if you replace that with the image I put up at the start of this thread, it not only works, but the buttons now light up correctly.

The author has also graciously agreed to add my two feature requests to his next version of Lyrics:

- It would be really great if Lyrics would offer the same search engine choices as TunesTEXT. Right now TunesTEXT finds many more songs. If you don't want to program for preferences, maybe you could just move the search engine to a plist so the advanced end user could modify it.

- If possible, add the ability to contol iTunes within Lyrics would be fantastic. Just Next song, Previous song, Pause and Play.

[Dash-2]

Very cool, I like developers that understand what the people want. =D
My icons still don't show up, but it seems to be finding more songs!

[verbalist]

right click on a song click get info then its in the tabs there's a text bid to enter lyrics

[Eurisko]

Originally Posted by Bleh5

doesn't itunes allow you to store lyrics within the mp3 file already? wouldn't it be easier to have a program that will look within the mp3 first?

I agree. Why not just take the lyrics already attached the the MP3 tag, why have a separate database?

[DaveiPhone]

I think if there was a hook to read and write the lyrics from the tag and the developer could have found it, he would have used it. My guess is that it's much easier said than done.

This is probably a feature that Apple will do natively down the line, but in the meantime, we have a nice solution, why not enjoy it?

[snailtek]

U R G O D

[EmoRebellion]

Originally Posted by DaveiPhone

This is probably a feature that Apple will do natively down the line, but in the meantime, we have a nice solution, why not enjoy it?

Riight.. Just like A2DP, MMS, and VOIP?

[qnd0121]

It would be nice if Lyrics has the option to delete lyrics that are no longer needed.

Currently, you can go to private/var/root/Media/Lyrics to delete the lyrics that you don't want anymore, then modify the LYLibraryCache.plist accordingly

[jwcrash]

While I'm still po'd at Apple for not letting us see the lyrics stored with each song, this app is a sweet workaround.

Awesome refinement of the iPhone experience!