(Update from an old post from 16/06/08 18:29)
What am i talking about?
An easy definition could be: .lrc files are the subtitles for the music, and looks like .SRT files(video subtitles) are text files with a timestamp before each phrase.
ex. [min:sec.mmm] bla bla bla bla
Note: Some people tags the lyrics in different way (by hand or by software), the players should work with all but could fail if the developer didn't think in that.
Real examples of tags:
[0:34] 1 digit for minute and 2 for seconds
[01:07.037] 2 digit for minutes and 3 for milliseconds
[00:15.38] 2 digits for minutes and 2 for milliseconds ¿wrong?
[1:01.296] 1 digit for minutes and 3 for milliseconds
Minilyrics isn't the same as videosubtitles therefore the millisecond precision is not necessary and any value is correct.
In beginning every line of text has its own time stamp but in the last years, lyrics downloaded from some webs, when a sentence is repeated there are as many time stamps as required at the beginning, and luckily most of players/addons supports this new feature
i.e:
[00:48.20][01:49.38][02:35.50] clean out the bank and bump off your daddy
These timestamps must be syncronized with the music file (ogg, mp3,etc...)
what do I need?
A music player hardware or software, with support for lyrics (a plugin for your application is a common solution)favourite player, this player can be a hardware or software, some cheap mp3 player support .srt files (I suppose ipod too).
Software for:
Windows/Linux:
XBMC (Karaoke + Cu lyrics addon)
Nightingale (a son of Songbird and based in Firefox) (addon Mlyric)
Winamp, Amarok,..... (some of them need a plugin)
Songbird+scrolling lyric (don't read from local lrc files, download the lyric/minilyric from internet)*
Apple MacOS: XBMC (Karaoke + Cu lyrics addon)
Nokia Maemo: Mediabox (small font and not configurable)
PalmOS: ptlyrics (+Pocket tunes)*
Symbian: LCG Jukebox
Raspberry Pi: XBMC (Karaoke + Cu lyrics addon)
Android: Minilyrics(.lrc + .txt fullscreen)
* include creation of minilyrics (tag time on lyrics)
How/where I can get lyrics?
Lyrics addons:
Minilyrics software. Output: .lrc .txt files
Cu lyrics addon (XBMC). Output: .lrc .txt files
Mlyric addon (Nightingale). Output: id3tag Unsynced tag
Webs:
http://www.lrcdb.org/
http://www.lyrdb.com/
or if you want a pack with lrcfiles + mp3 you can search in torrent with "ramones mania"
and one example of lrc file: Bad Religion - Turn on the light
Present and Future
This was quite unknown format, more know in Asia than Europe or America, furthermore it is not very commercial (most of media-players devices doesn't support it as per default) . Maybe Apple will create their own copy and will sell it as a very modern feature...
However, nowadays the lack of support from big companies is not a so bad because people made their .lrc files by themselves (is as easy as to edit an lyric text file and add the timestamps) and it is quite easy to find lyric for many bands
