gadgets | A-Lyric.com

We’ve moved, we’ve changed

February 8, 2007February 8, 2007
by The Accidental Lyricist

Thanks for dropping by. As you can see, we have moved – and I’m still in the process of unpacking virtual boxes. The new design is easier to use, and faster. Plus you can now navigate by Tags such as Tribute, RIP, Awards and Meanings. I’ve put a few in on this article for you to try (at the top of the post).

The Search box is fun, as I recovered some articles going back to July 2002. Either type in an artist you’re looking for, or go wild card with a random word. Try “diarrhoea” for starters 😉

Where is the Lyric Search?

As I said, I’m still unpacking. The lyric search will be back shortly, don’t worry. If you’ve landed here following a link that doesn’t work, simply type the name of the artist into the Search box (right). All the pages are still here, I just re-arranged everything and it will take some time for the search engines to update them. Thanks for sticking with me.

gadgets

Whatever happened to pearLyrics?

February 1, 2007
by The Accidental Lyricist

Mac users might remember (or still be running) a funky little application called pearLyrics that goes out and finds the lyrics of songs playing on your iTunes. Over a year ago, its creator, Walter Ritter, fell foul of the industry’s crackdown on lyric sites. Citing infringement of copyright, the US publisher Warner-Chappell sent out a cease-and-desist order. Not having the resources to fight a legal battle despite the fact that pearLyrics was nothing more than a specialised search engine, Ritter complied. As numerous people and bodies rushed to Ritter’s defence, Warner-Chappell eventually sent an apology and opened the door to working together. All sounds cosy, doesn’t it? So what happened next?
Read more “Whatever happened to pearLyrics?” →

gadgets

Song lyrics go legit

July 3, 2006February 12, 2018
by The Accidental Lyricist

As reported several months ago on A-Lyric, the music business and web companies have been searching for ways to do business with song lyrics. In an interesting deal, the music database company Gracenote has signed deals with hundreds of publishers and will start integrating approved lyrics into a range of services. The idea is to include lyrics as part of download services, such as iTunes, RealNetworks or 7Digital. This would make finding the correct lyrics far easier for users, while also increasing the interest in legal downloads.

Working out the deal, as anyone who has dealt with publishers will know, was not easy. In some cases, the publishers didn’t have copies of the actual song lyrics. So Gracenote employees had to transcribe them from recordings. Yup, just like the amateur sites.
For a longer discussion of the use of lyrics on websites, type “pearLyrics” in the search box.

gadgets

Gimmick time: Your own nametone

March 16, 2006
by The Accidental Lyricist

I couldn’t help enjoying this gimmick. How about having a ring tone that calls you by name? Or even better, sings you by name. This little gimmick does just that. Type in a name (nothing too adventurous) and try it. Personally, I think the reggae version works best. Gimmicky, I know, but fun.

gadgets

And now: the war on lyrics

December 7, 2005August 27, 2018
by The Accidental Lyricist

And just when you thought it was safe to listen to music, war breaks out again. This time, lyrics are at the root of the issue. Song lyrics are frequently amongst the top ten search terms on the web – no small feat. As a lyricist, I’m flattered by your attention. But the US publishing
giant Warner/Chappell is not. They have started sending “cease and desist” letters to developers of applications that find lyrics on the web for you. PearLyrics is a Mac OS application that locates the lyrics to tracks on your iPod. Citing copyright infringement, Warner/Chappell has made them stop distribution. “Personally I don’t see where
pearLyrics should infringe any copyrights handled by them,” says developer Walter Ritter on his website. “After all, pearLyrics only searches and accesses publicly available websites, displays, and, at the users wish, caches its content. Something that can easily be done with any combination of search engine and web browser too.”

If people are looking for lyrics, they have presumably acquired the music already. So they are “consumers”, perhaps even “customers” if they bought the music. So what’s wrong with them reading the lyrics? It sure beats them making them up on their own (see the post on misheard lyrics).

For me, this highlights another issue, the continued disregard for lyrics by the music business. Read more for an update

gadgets

Barabra Streisand lost for words

September 22, 2005
by The Accidental Lyricist

I was just reading about how Barbara Streisand gave up live performances 27 years ago because she forgot the lyrics to 3 songs on stage at Central Park. Is that all? Surely someone should introduce her to cueing screens, like the prompters you see on television. The Stones use them, after all. And they write their own material. What does it tell you about a band that has to have the lyrics and the key of the songs they have been playing for 30 years projected on a screen? “We just prefer to have them there,” Jagger once said at a press conference. It might seem a bit odd, but it happens to every singer at some stage.

Category: gadgets

We’ve moved, we’ve changed

Whatever happened to pearLyrics?

Song lyrics go legit

Gimmick time: Your own nametone

And now: the war on lyrics

Barabra Streisand lost for words