MiniLyrics: displays song lyrics, synchronized to your music

How would you like to be able to see your song lyrics on-screen in step with your music? Minilyrics is an add-on for a wide range of popular music players that downloads and displays lyrics, and synchronizes them to the music.

Supported music players include: Winamp, Windows Media Player, iTunes, MediaMonkey, Songbird, AIMP2, J. River Media Jukebox, Quintessential Player, XMPlay, VLC, and MusicBee, to name but a few.

Note that while MiniLyrics is technically paid software, it provides a trial version that never expires.

Here are some notes on this one:

• Skins: offers a host of built in skins. Check out the
• Installation: in most cases, it will install as an add-on or plugin automatically. Some manual setting-up is required for a handful of players (e.g. VLC, XMPlay).
• Lyrics: can be saved into the MP3 file, and edited. You can use your own search string to search for lyrics, if necessary, although I have not had to do so. Scrolling lyrics are only supported for .LRC format lyrics, not .TXT. If you are given a choice, choose the former. Also note that the up/down arrows will let you scroll manually.
• Display: is customizable’ stay on top window, karoake style “word highlighting”, “lyric bar” where only the current line is shown, and ‘floating lyrics’ that blend into the desktop (and look really cool), etc.
• Nag ‘line’: as opposed to a nag screen. It really doesn’t look that bad though (see the orange line in the screenshot to the right), and you can close/remove it after a few seconds. (Note that the trial version if fully functional and never expires).
• Memory Usage: a very small 9 megs or so.

The verdict: Lyrics can really transform your music experience, and having them live on screen and interactive is so much nicer that, say, Googling them.

But what’s even better is that not only does this do a great job, but this software is also quite light on resources. Check it out for yourself!

[Thanks for reader Panzer for tipping me off about this software]

Version tested: 7.1.778

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx. 1.7 megs)