pearLyrics
October 2nd, 2005
Recent versions of iTunes have incorporated a facility for storing song lyrics, but at the moment iTunes doesn’t actually provide a way to collect and store lyrics other than copy-and-pasting them in manually. Happily, there is a solution: pearLyrics, a freeware utility for OS X, will listen for the song iTunes is playing, search various online sources of lyrics, download and display them and even copy them to iTunes. It’s available as a standalone application or a Dashboard Widget and works exactly as advertised.
The only drawbacks of pearLyrics that I can see are that a) sometimes the lyrics aren’t quite correct – a drawback of any “unofficial” source of lyrics, and b) sometimes (not always) iTunes will briefly pause playing a track for which it’s downloading the lyrics about four seconds in for a fraction of a second, presumably while it writes the lyrics to whichever corner of the iTunes library is used to store the lyrics. I see a similar effect when I tell Clutter to copy the cover art it downloads to iTunes, except that in that case there’s a slightly longer pause and it happens every single time an image is written to the iTunes library; presumably iTunes just doesn’t like it when other programs fiddle with the track currently playing.
Of course, it would be nice if the iPod provided a way to view the lyrics you’ve downloaded while you play the track. I gather that the iPod nano does this, so with any luck we’ll see the feature added in the next update to the iPod software.
December 7th, 2005 at 18:33
Pearlyrics has succumbed to a cease and desist, Boing Boing tells me. Any chance you could send me the install for it, if you have it? Ta!
December 7th, 2005 at 20:59
Check your email.
December 7th, 2005 at 21:43
Can you send it to me as well? Thanks a ton!
December 7th, 2005 at 22:39
Hi !
I’ll be glad if you could send it over also…
Thanks in advance
Manu
December 7th, 2005 at 23:25
me too please. just found about this app after it got shut down. damn labels, trying to control everything.
December 8th, 2005 at 02:14
Could you send it? Would love that. As has been said before, there are few industries that fear and hate their customers like the recording business. – Dinosaur
December 8th, 2005 at 02:21
Send it here too if you wouldn’t mind Thankx
December 8th, 2005 at 03:02
Hey,
Could you send it my way as well?
Thanks,
Regards.
December 8th, 2005 at 03:59
could you send it my way please…thanks in advance!!!
December 8th, 2005 at 04:54
I would appreciate it as well.
Thanks!
December 8th, 2005 at 05:42
A torrent has been seeded on piratebay:
http://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3418692
keep it alive!
December 8th, 2005 at 08:04
Can I suggest that everyone who wants a copy of pearLyrics take advantage of the torrent linked to by Dave above: BitTorrent is a much more efficient, scalable way to distribute software than email or FTP.
December 8th, 2005 at 09:17
Can anyone email me a copy of pearlyrics ?
Cheers.
Jason.
December 8th, 2005 at 14:02
Also, can you send me a copy? (Sorry for all the traffic requesting the same thing! Da#n lawyers)
December 13th, 2005 at 06:38
Can anyone PLEASE send me a copy of Pearlyrics…
much appreciated
December 13th, 2005 at 23:26
can someone please send me a copy too, i just got an iPod and found out about it but its gone.
thanks in advance
December 16th, 2005 at 19:03
I downloaded the bittorrent file above. How do I get it to work?
Thanks,
Dave
December 16th, 2005 at 19:25
Could anyone email me the install for pearlyrics?
I would greatly appreciate it ! !
Thanks,
Charles
December 17th, 2005 at 00:20
Davehutch: The .torrent file that you’ve downloaded doesn’t contain the file you’re trying to download, it just enables a program that understands BitTorrent files to locate and share the program you actually want. I know this seems to be a roundabout way to get the file you want, but the BitTorrent protocol shares the burden of finding the bandwidth to transfer files across the internet in a much more efficient manner that those your web browser uses. You can find a list of BitTorrent clients at Wikipedia.
January 2nd, 2006 at 17:39
Could you please send me a copy, much appreciated…Happy New Year =)
April 11th, 2006 at 02:37
If we can get this torrent going so more can get it
http://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3418692
July 15th, 2006 at 20:52
all torrents seem to be dead ad i cant find it anywhere else, i ahd it on my old ibook but i’d love t hav it on my macbook tht i just set up so if anyone can send it i’d really appreciate it
July 5th, 2007 at 22:41
please!! send it to me, ive been looking for awhile
January 25th, 2008 at 13:17
Hi John, I’m sorry for all the trouble this is. Could you perhaps send me a copy too? Cheers.
Nice blog too – a good collection of different stuff, not just one topic.
January 27th, 2008 at 06:12
I am ineffably reminded of the Eternal September’s endlessly strings of, after “send me that [X], too, please!,” “me, too,” “me, too!,” “add my name to the list,” “send it to me, too,” “me, too!,” “me, too!,” “me, too!,” ad infinitum.
Same exact inability to read by, well, morons.
January 27th, 2008 at 06:13
Oops, I forgot to mention that it used to be known as “aoling.”
January 28th, 2008 at 23:50
Talking of Eternal September, I see that James Nicoll has come across a sign that Usenet may be reverting to a pre-September 1993 state (only with much, much more spam.)
I realise that’s just one data point, but it reminds me of how thoroughly I’ve shed my Usenet habit over the last couple of years.