Tag Archives: Lyrics

LyricStatus – Get Lyrics On Facebook Right

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Name: LyricStatus
URL: http://www.lyricstatus.com

A person who has never posted a song lyric to Facebook to convey the way he’s feeling is like a kid who has never watched “The Lion King”. That doesn’t happen, not even in another universe. Songs lyrics are tailor made for something like Facebook, a site that redefines how one presents himself to the world. The mere fact of interacting on a social network means that one’s exposing a lot about himself, so that anything that can sort of depersonalize the experience without sacrificing expressivity is just perfect. And song lyrics fall squarely in that category. Song lyrics can be used to tell someone he/she makes you feel special in front of the whole world without having to address him/her directly. They can be used to wind somebody up. And they also come in handy when you simply want to slag others off.

And in all cases, there’s nothing more embarrassing than getting the lyrics you’re quoting wrong. When you post lyrics on Facebook, the last thing you want is people commenting that you got them all mixed up. You want them to think about what they might mean to you and other, not to pick on words that you might have got wrong. That throws everything out of the window, as discussions will revolve around these words you messed up, and not what you actually meant to convey when posting them.

Such a thing is certainly frustrating, but (thankfully) you can prevent that from happening by using a site like this one. LyricStatus is a search engine for lyrics. This site lets you find lyrics both by artist and by song, and the idea is that once you’ve found what you are looking for you can have it posted to Facebook straightaway. Continue reading →

LYRICSnMUSIC – Lyrics, Band Bios, Tour Dates & Everything Else In Between

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Name: LYRICSnMUSIC
URL: http://www.lyricsnmusic.com

The first thing people do when wanting to learn more about any band that’s been brought into their attention is heading straight to Wikipedia to see what can be learned about that artist there. Either that, or they are on their way to YouTube to catch the band in sonic flight. And looking up some lyrics is the next link in the chain, specially if English’s not their first language.

By all reckonings, that’s an almighty amount of toing and froing. It would be great if there were a way to get all that info at once, wouldn’t it? And it would be even better if The Who finally decided to tour South America.

Well, as far as the Shepherd Bush’s contingent coming all the way to this balmy region of the world is concerned I’ve almost lost all hope by now. And I don’t love them any less for that, nor do I listen to their music any less enthusiastically. But I refuse to believe nobody has ever come with a site to let you search the whole Internet in an organic way when looking for music-related information. Somebody must have done something about it. And I’ve scoured the whole digital universe looking for an answer. And hey, look what I’ve found.

LYRICSnMUSIC is a search aggregator that collects together results for sites like YouTube, Wikipedia and the best of the many lyrics repositories that are currently available online. All these are accessible using a tabbed interface that makes for a really cool user experience. You input your query, pick the suitable tab and Bob’s your uncle. Continue reading →

LyricsGaps – Learn Languages By Listening To Songs

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LyricsGap

Name: LyricsGaps
URL: http://www.lyricsgaps.com

“Music is the doctor of my soul”. That’s what the Doobie Brothers once sang. And it’s something that is more or less carved in stone. Yet, music can take on other professional roles. Preeminently among them is the role of teacher. I mean, just look at the number of people who have learned English by listening to songs. OK, maybe the word “learn” is too much. Nobody becomes a fountain of knowledge by listening to songs by contemporary musicians. But there’s no denying that he will build up a more than respectable vocabulary, and revise his existing word lists that much easier.

Well, he certainly will as long as he has a site like this one at hand. LyricsGaps lets anybody pick up new words by listening to music. The idea is that people choose a language from the many that are offered (including English, Spanish, Italian and French) and pick new vocabulary up by completing blanks in the lyrics of songs in such languages. Continue reading →

Double Lyrics – A Directory Of Lyrics That Are Reviewed And Rated

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Double Lyrics

Name: Double Lyrics
URL: http://www.doublelyrics.com

I am sure very few among us can claim to have a favorite lyrics site. I mean, there are a zillion of them out there. Personally, I have always been keen on the AZ Lyrics website because it is lightweight, the lyrics are arranged album by album, and (yes, I know I am fastidious) the punctuation and the use of capitals is fully accounted for. As a non-native speaker of English, I always print the lyrics to all the albums that I buy that don’t include them. A site like AZ Lyrics lets me get them quickly, and create a Word document with them painlessly.

Still, I am always looking for alternatives. And I must say that the Double Lyrics website has got a lot going for it. For starters, whenever you carry out a search you get results that are sorted by relevancy. You don’t get a jumble of links that might be what you needed or something completely unrelated. The most relevant lyrics are ranked by the site’s engine and featured on top, while the ones that will probably have nothing to do with your query are relegated to the bottom of the list.

Also, users can both review and rate lyrics. That is nothing new (many sites let users “comment” on lyrics, and fans take advantage of that opportunity to review them), but its usefulness is not questioned by anybody – you will have a bigger chance of finding what you are after in that way. And once you have found it, a well-written review can always let you figure out what a cryptic song is all about. For example, how many are really aware of all the possible interpretation of Cat Steven’s “Moonshadow “? How many are aware of the cancer interpretation, the Vietnam chopper interpretation…? Only fans are. And if given the chance to review a song and illuminate everybody else, they are likely to do it. Continue reading →

Kilian Valkhof (Lystener) – Interview (Part 2)

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This is the final part of the interview with Kilian Valkhof (from Lystener). As I always say… share and enjoy! (The first part is here)

PART II

MUSIC & YOU

When did you become interested in music? What was the first album or single you ever purchased?

I always liked music, and I believe the first single I bought was, shamefully, ‘candle in the wind’ by Elton John. I was 9 or so, then, and was very moved by it all. I redeemed myself with my first CD: Discovery by Daft Punk. Getting really into music only happened later a couple of years after that, when I started discovering bands via the internet that I really liked that you didn’t see on television.

Are you in a band yourself, or have you been in a band in the past? Is there a clip on YouTube or elsewhere we could watch?

Nope. I tried it with a couple of friends, but I’m just not musical enough. I own a guitar and dabble on it every now and then, but it’s nothing to write home about.

Musical likes and dislikes? Favorite artists?

Very diverse. Anything from folk to hip-hop, really, with some exceptions: R&B doesn’t do it for me, and the only time I tolerate dance music is in a club. I listen most to rock music, with my favorite artists consisting of Jack’s mannequin, Say anything, Third Eye Blind, Snow Patrol, Brand New.

To you, what is the role that lyrics actually play in contemporary music? Is that wrong or is that right?

It really depends on the artist. Some artists have lyrics to accompany the music, and some the other way around. I myself am drawn to more lyric-centric musicians, but it differs per person and per band. Continue reading →

Kilian Valkhof (Lystener) – Interview (Part 1)

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Last week I caught up with Kilian Valkhof from Lystener, a startup offering an innovative way to find and share lyrics that I had reviewed the previous week.

We talked about his project, and also about his relationship with music. A special emphasis was placed on the way he perceives lyrics, of course.

This is Part 1 of the interview. Part 2 (where we talk about music) can be read here.

Kilian Valkhof, The Creator Of Lystener

Kilian Valkhof, The Creator Of Lystener

Full Name: Kilian Valkhof
Age: 22
Web App: Lystener
Position: Founder

PART I

THE  WEB APP

Tell us a little about your web app. How was it conceived? What are its most distinctive features in your opinion?

I’ve always had a problem with the way lyrics work. Some music players can display lyrics and that’s great, but there’s always one that doesn’t work as well as it should.

You can also google lyrics. This means you have to type in the artist and song title (because somehow they’re never copyable from music players) and find a working site that doesn’t have a bunch of ads and spam. Then, if you want to actually do something with the lyrics, like, copy them, most sites block that too! If you want to share lyrics on facebook, for example, you end up typing them yourself.

Lystener fixes both these problems. No typing needed to find the lyrics to the song you’re listening to now, because I just ask last.fm what you’re playing, and it updates automatically. When you select the lyrics you like, you can post the part you selected to facebook or twitter with a single button.

What was the original launch date?

I launched it on monday the 28th of june, after a week of private beta.

What has been the response so far? In which countries has it been more successful?

Twofold actually. People love the application but the lyrics database isn’t really big, so if you’re like me and listen to lots of unknown stuff, you’ll have to do without lyrics every now and then. There are ways to easily add them though, and I’m going to expand on those to make adding lyrics yourself even easier. When you have lyrics though, people are delighted because everything works very smoothly, reading lyrics, selecting lyrics, sending lyrics, it all happens in one flow.

As far as countries go, English speaking countries lead by a large margin. Continue reading →

Lystener – A New Way To Share & Discover Lyrics

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Lystener
Name: Lystener
URL: http://www.lystener.com

OK, I am the first to admit that this site is not the greatest thing ever since Swiss Cheese came along, but I quite like it. That is probably because I am a lyricist and I can’t divorce a song’s music from its words, but even casual users could get something good out of it.

If we look at its roots, what the site lets you do is to input your Last.fm username in order for the lyrics to the song that you are listening at that time to be displayed. When that happens, you will be able not only to read them but also to share them with your friends.

That is not as superfluous as some of you might be thinking. For starters, non-native speakers of English (like me) often have trouble catching a word or two, even after years of listening to English music. That is something obvious – it is not the same listening to Liam Gallagher than listening to John Denver. Sometimes we frankly can’t get the words right. That is one use this site will certainly have. Continue reading →

Majid ALSarra (Lyreach) – Interview (Part 2)

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This is the final part of my interview with Majid from Lyreach.
Read the first part of this interview (“The Startup”) right here.

PART II

MUSIC & YOU

When did you become interested in music? What was the first album or single you ever purchased?

At a very young age, when watching cartoons  🙂 .. then I started listening to pop music, the first album I ever purchased was “Bat Out of Hell” by “Meat Loaf” when I was 14, and I still love it!

Are you in a band yourself, or have you been in a band in the past? Is there a clip on YouTube or elsewhere we could watch?

Nope!

Musical likes and dislikes? Favorite artists?

I don’t focus on one artist or genre, I like Madonna, Linkin Park , Leona Lewis, Beyonce, The Saturdays…and a lot more. Quite some time ago I was crazy about Enya, Enigma, and New Age in general, now they’re the bands I listen to the least.

If you had to name the song that moves you the most, what would it be? Can you pinpoint the reason why?

Definitely “I Believe In You” by IL Divo and Celine Dion, it’s the most encouraging song I ever heard, its lyrics are brimming with the deepest, noblest emotions. Continue reading →

Majid ALSarra (Lyreach) – Interview (Part 1)

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I had a chat with Majid ALSarra from Lyreach (the innovative search engine for lyrics that I featured last month on MusicKO) where he revealed the inspiration behind the project and his plans for the future. You can find it below. And don’t forget to check out Part 2 (“Music & You”).

Majid ALSarra

Majid ALSarra

Full Name: Majid ALSarra
Age: 29
Startup: Lyreach
Position: Founder

PART I

THE STARTUP


Tell us a little about your startup. How was it conceived?

Everything started two years ago, I used to be a software developer my whole life and I really loved it, but in mid-2008 I decided to be a boring man ,working in a boring field called business continuity in a startup bank started by the government.

I tried stupidly to live with such a situation, to have what I thought was a stable life, then I exploded.

I began programming everything like crazy; I was searching for a killer idea, I had been searching for such a thing even before the bank job. I have always been enthusiastic about the Web, but when I was in the bank I was too depressed to find a good idea.

And because I didn’t know “anything” about business continuity, I was searching in Google, and translating some stuff in a dictionary – in both cases using auto-completed sentences. “Google suggest” gave me some nice (but limited) recommendations. A lot of sentences that looked like what I had typed were featured, but I thought “why they’re not here in the suggestions?. Even when I click the “Search” button, it gives results that have the words of the input sentence separated randomly in a lot of results, even when I put the double quotation marks, I can see the sentence alone in the results, but I have to open the link and search for the sentence to find its context…” Then the idea popped out!

It kept brewing it in my mind for a while, and I began programming some code and testing it on some Wikipedia pages, I had more complicated (and also more useful) ideas than this one, but I didn’t have the time to implement them, so I decided to go ahead with this one.

Searching the whole Web was too huge for my tiny budget, that was why I thought about Wikipedia, but then I realized it would take ages to crawl their 6000,000 articles (English only!). So, I kept living as usual with these search ideas in my head, until I noticed how unpleasant it was when I heard a part of a song and could not find it by searching using only that specific part. It all clicked then, and the idea was finally conceived 🙂

What was the original launch date?

No exact date, it was there on the web for a long time while I was debugging it, then I told some friends to test it, and then I finally put the ads on Facebook & Google sometime in mid-May.

What has been the response so far?

It’s been good, a lot of sites & blogs talk about it all over the world, especially in Italy! Continue reading →

Lyreach – A Search Engine For Lyrics

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Lyreach

Name: Lyreach
URL: http://www.lyreach.com

If you love music as much as I do, the ultimate aggravation is listening to a terrific song and not being able to find out who is the performer afterwards. Personally, it makes me go madder than the squirrel from “Ice Age” whenever something happens to its dearly beloved nut.

That is why a site like this one sounds promising. Basically, it is a search engine for lyrics. In theory, it should produce satisfactory results even if you have only a couple of words from the actual line to throw at it. Once you have typed the words in, it will show you all the possible matches with links to MetroLyrics for you to dig deeper and see if that is indeed the song you were after.

Well, let’s take it for a test drive.

First try:

Song: “My Generation” by The Who
Words I will use: “talking”, “generation”, “baby”

Results:

talking gentleman I’d like to

talking get down through the

talking get em baby Nicki

talking get in the game

talking get on dis motorcycle

talking get on down mothafuckas

talking get that shit that

talking get the fuck off

Mmmh.. let’s try again.

Second try:

Song: “My Generation” by The Who (again)
Words I will use: “talking about my generation baby” (that is, the exact lyric)

Results:

talking about my Generation hope

talking about my Generation Injected

talking about my Generation talking

talking about my girl my

talking about my girl on

talking about my girl talking

talking about my girl that’s

talking about my grandma like

talking about my hair but

There it is. The third link directs to The Who’s classic. But shouldn’t such a classic top the list?

Let’s carry on…

Third try:

Song: “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John
Words I will use: “goodbye yellow brick road”
Continue reading →