Apple Music has made it easier than ever to follow along with your favorite songs, thanks to its integration of synchronized lyrics. This feature is often underestimated, but it can really enhance your listening experience—whether you're checking the lyrics, singing along, discovering a new song, or simply understanding every line of your favorite track.
As music streaming continues to dominate, Apple Music stands out by offering seamless lyrics integration alongside interactive features like Apple Music Sing, where users can enjoy a karaoke-like experience on devices such as iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV 4K with the latest OS. Lyrics are now available across various devices. Before we dive in, let's take a look at how the feature works, where the lyrics come from, and which devices can access them. We'll also share tips on adding lyrics to your own music library, including local tracks. Whether you're a casual listener or a music enthusiast, Apple Music makes it easier to connect with your music in new ways.
Part 1. What Is the Apple Music Lyrics Feature?
Apple Music's Lyrics feature lets you view lyrics directly in the app, enhancing your listening experience. Powered by Musixmatch, it offers two types of displays: full lyrics and time-synced lyrics.
- Full Lyrics (Static Lyrics):
Full lyrics show the entire set of lyrics for a song, making it easy to sing along or understand the song's meaning. This is available on devices like iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Windows PC. - Time-Synced Lyrics:
Time-synced lyrics, on the other hand, highlight each line in real-time as the song plays, helping you stay in sync with the music. This feature adds an interactive element, available on select tracks.
Together, these options give you flexibility in how you experience the song, whether by reading all the lyrics or following along in real-time.
Note: Not all songs on Apple Music have lyrics. If lyrics are available, you'll see a "Lyrics" button; if it's missing, the song doesn't have lyrics.
Apple Music Sing
Apple Music Sing takes lyrics to the next level, letting you sing along in solo or duet mode, with animated lyrics synced to the music.
"Apple Music's lyrics experience is consistently one of the most popular features on our service," said Oliver Schusser, Apple's Vice President of Apple Music and Beats. "We already know our users all over the world love to follow along to their favourite songs, so we wanted to evolve this offering even further to enable even more engagement around music through singing. It's really a lot of fun, our customers are going to love it."
To start, select any song from your Apple Music catalog—whether from the Sing playlists or your regular library. As long as the song has real-time lyrics, it works, including Dolby Atmos tracks. When the song starts, tap the speech bubble in the bottom-right corner to bring up the animated lyrics, and you're ready to sing along, duet, or add your own flair.
Now Apple Music introduces the Sing feature for Apple Music subscribers to sing along with songs on iPhone, iPad or Apple TV device! Check this out!
Part 2. Where Do Apple Music Lyrics Come From?
Apple Music pulls its lyrics from Musixmatch, a platform that operates much like Wikipedia for song lyrics. It's a community-driven site where users contribute and edit lyrics. To make sure things stay accurate, Musixmatch has a ranking system that gives more trusted users the ability to make changes. This keeps everything in check, so you're not dealing with random edits.
Thanks to Musixmatch, Apple Music offers synchronized lyrics, which are displayed in real-time as the song plays. Whether you're on an iPhone or Apple TV, the lyrics will stay in sync with the music, letting you follow along easily. You can even search for songs by their lyrics, which makes finding your favorite tunes a breeze. However, in rare cases, some songs might have lyrics added directly by the artist or their record label. This means user edits might not show up. If you ever notice a mistake, you can hop over to Musixmatch to see if the lyrics have been fixed.
How to View Apple Music Lyrics via Musixmatch:
- Search for and download the Musixmatch app from the App Store.
- Once installed, open the app.
- If you haven't already, log in to the Musixmatch app.
- Choose Apple Music as your music service and log in to your Apple Music account.
- Musixmatch will automatically sync with your Apple Music account and detect the currently playing song, along with "Recently Played" tracks. You can go back to the home screen and select the song to view its lyrics.
- Check real-time lyrics as they sync with the song. Musixmatch also offers additional features, such as translations and synchronized lyrics scrolling, for a fully immersive experience.
Part 3. How to Download Apple Music Lyrics for Offline Use
Here's the deal: ViWizard Apple Music Converter lets you download your entire Apple Music library and keeps your lyrics too. It works by removing the DRM protection on Apple Music songs, so you can save them as MP3, MAV, or other file types. Plus, the lyrics are saved as ".lrc" files, so you can still follow along even when you're offline.
The process is simple: pick the songs or playlists you want, choose the file format, and let ViWizard do the rest. You can even decide how your files are named, where they're saved, and avoid any duplicates. It also lets you adjust sound quality settings, like audio channels and sample rates, to get the best listening experience.
ViWizard makes it easy to organize and enjoy your Apple Music collection, even without an internet connection. It's a great way to have all your music and lyrics available anytime, anywhere.
A full-featured Apple Music converter that easily converts Apple Music songs, albums, playlists—including iCloud Music Library content, personalized recommendations, and curated playlists—into MP3, M4A, M4B, WAV, AIFF, and FLAC so you can keep your Apple Music forever or transfer it to any device without restrictions.
Step 1Install ViWizard and Log In to Your Apple Music Account
First, download and install ViWizard Apple Music Converter from the official website. It's available for both Windows and Mac. Once installed, open the app and log in with the Apple ID linked to your Apple Music subscription. This allows ViWizard to access your full music library directly from the interface.
Step 2Set MP3 as the Output Format
Next, click the Settings icon (usually in the upper-right corner). In the format options, select MP3 to make sure your songs are compatible with most devices. You can also customize the bit rate, sample rate, and channels based on your preferences. To preserve lyrics, check "Save lyrics (if provided)" so ViWizard download the ".lrc" if available. Once you're ready, click OK to save your settings.
Step 3Select Songs to Download
Click the "+" button to load your Apple Music library inside ViWizard. Then browse and choose the songs, albums, or playlists you want to download. Add your selections to the conversion list, and when ready, click the Convert button to start downloading. ViWizard will automatically convert multiple songs at once.
Step 4Locate and Manage Your Downloaded Files
After the conversion is finished, click the History icon to find your downloaded MP3 files. From there, you can open the output folder to access your music. Now your Apple Music songs are saved as MP3s without DRM, and you can back them up, transfer them to any device, or organize them into your favorite music player. Plus, many downloaded tracks will keep embedded information like album art, track names, and synced lyrics if available.
Part 4. How to Search Apple Music with Lyrics
Apple Music makes it easy to search for songs by lyrics. Here's how to do it across different devices:
On iPhone or iPad:
- Open the Apple Music app on your device.
- Tap the Search tab at the bottom of the screen.
- In the search bar, type the lyrics you're looking for. You can enter a line or phrase from the song.
- Apple Music will display songs that match the lyrics. Tap on a song to start listening.
- If the song has lyrics available, tap the Lyrics button on the Now Playing screen to view them.
On Android:
- Open the Apple Music app on your Android device.
- Tap the Search icon at the bottom of the screen.
- Type the lyrics you want to search for in the search bar.
- Browse the results and tap on the song you want to hear.
- If the song has lyrics, tap the Lyrics button during playback to view them.
On PC or Mac (Apple Music App or iTunes):
- Open the Apple Music app or iTunes on your computer.
- Go to the Search bar at the top-right corner of the window.
- Enter the lyrics you want to find and press Enter.
- From the search results, select the song that matches your search.
- If lyrics are available, click on the Lyrics button in the Now Playing section to see them.
On the Web (Apple Music Website):
- Visit the Apple Music website and log in to your account.
- Use the search bar at the top to enter the lyrics you're looking for.
- Browse the search results and click on the song you want to listen to.
- If the song includes lyrics, click the Lyrics button to view them.
Part 5: How to View Apple Music Lyrics
Viewing lyrics while listening to your favorite tracks on Apple Music is simple across all your devices. Here's how to access them on various platforms:
On iPhone and iPad:
- Unlock your device and open the Apple Music app.
- Select the song you want to listen to from your library or browse.
- While the song is playing, tap on the song's artwork to enter the Now Playing screen.
- Look for the Lyrics button at the bottom of the screen (usually in the bottom-left corner).
- Tap the Lyrics button to view the synced lyrics as the song plays.
- You can toggle between full lyrics and time-synced lyrics depending on the song's availability.
On Android:
- Open the Apple Music app on your Android device.
- Play the song you want to listen to.
- Tap the song's artwork to open the Now Playing screen.
- Look for the Lyrics button at the bottom of the screen.
- Tap the button to view the time-synced lyrics and follow along.
On PC or Mac (Apple Music App or iTunes):
- Open the Apple Music app (or iTunes on Windows) on your computer.
- Select the song you want to play from your library or browse.
- While the song is playing, look for the Lyrics button near the playback controls.
- Click on the Lyrics button to display the full or time-synced lyrics.
- If available, toggle between full lyrics and time-synced lyrics by clicking the relevant option.
On the Web (Apple Music Website):
- Visit the Apple Music website and log into your account.
- Play a song from your library or search for a new track.
- Click on the Lyrics button, which appears during playback.
- View the time-synced lyrics or full lyrics, depending on the song.
On Apple TV:
- Open the Apple Music app on your Apple TV.
- Play a song from your library or explore new music.
- While the song is playing, look for the Lyrics button on the right side of the screen.
- If time-synced lyrics are available, they will appear, and you can follow along.
- If the lyrics aren't available, you can choose to view the full lyrics instead by selecting More at the bottom of the screen.
- If you have an Apple TV 4K, you can use the "Sing" feature to sing along with the lyrics by selecting the mic icon when lyrics are shown.
On Apple Watch:
- Install and open the Musixmatch app on your Apple Watch.
- Sync the app with your Apple Music account (follow the setup instructions).
- Select a song from your synced library on the Musixmatch app.
- As the song plays, Musixmatch will display the time-synced lyrics on your watch's screen.
- You can follow along or sing with the lyrics in real-time.
Part 6: How to Submit Missing Lyrics to Apple Music
Apple Music offers a vast catalog of lyrics for most songs, but some tracks may still be missing lyrics. If you come across a song without lyrics, you can help improve the service by submitting missing lyrics. Apple Music relies on Musixmatch for many of its lyric features, but you can also add lyrics to local files directly in apps like iTunes or the Music app. Here's how to submit missing lyrics through different options:
How to Submit Missing Lyrics to Apple Music
- Open the Musixmatch app or website on your device.
- Search for the song that's missing lyrics.
- If the song's lyrics aren't available, look for the option to submit lyrics.
- Enter the lyrics in the provided text box, making sure they match the song's structure and formatting.
- Submit the lyrics to Musixmatch to help improve the lyric database for Apple Music.
How to Add Lyrics to Local Songs in iTunes
- Open iTunes on your PC or Mac.
- Find the song you want to add lyrics to in your library.
- Right-click on the song and select "Song Info" (or "Get Info").
- Go to the "Lyrics" tab and click "Custom Lyrics".
- Type the lyrics in the text box, then click "OK" to save them.
How to Sync Lyrics to Your Mobile Device
- Connect your iPhone or iPad to your computer using a USB cable.
- In iTunes, click the device icon that appears in the top-left corner of the window.
- Select "Music" under the Settings section.
- Choose "Sync Music" and select the songs with added lyrics.
- Click "Apply" to sync the music and lyrics to your device.
Part 7: How to View Apple Music Lyrics on Unsupported Devices
Even if your device doesn't officially support Apple Music lyrics, you can still enjoy them by using AirPlay. Here's how to view time-synced lyrics on a bigger screen:
- Open the Apple Music app on your Mac.
- Play the song you want to listen to, then click the Lyrics button near the playback controls to enable Lyrics view.
- Make sure your Mac and your AirPlay 2-compatible TV (or streaming device) are connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
- Click the Control Center icon in the menu bar on your Mac, then select Screen Mirroring.
- Choose your TV or streaming device from the list to start mirroring your Mac's screen.
Your Mac screen — including the Apple Music lyrics — will now display on your TV.
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Adam Gorden, the digital media specialist at ViWizard, is dedicated to providing the best solutions for digital media management, including audio and video conversion, file optimization, and media workflow enhancements.
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