Sing like Elton with lyrics in iTunes

While we wait for Apple to bow to the inevitable and combine Animoji with Karaoke-like song lyrics and FaceTime across its Mac, TV and iOS ecosystem, we have to make do with reading the song lyrics on our Apple devices.

Where are the song lyrics on Apple devices?

iTunes/Apple Music now provides you with song lyrics for the currently playing track. You’ll find these on Macs, iPhones, iPads, the Apple TV, and even on PCs running iTunes, though each one of these packs them inside a slightly different part of the user interface.

Where can I find the lyrics on my Mac?

When listening to a song in iTunes on your Mac you’ll find two routes to get to the lyrics:

• First way: Click on the three lines/hamburger icon to the right of the song information at the top of the page, and choose the Lyrics pane.
• Second way: Click on the artist icon to the left of the Now Playing track to invoke the mini player, click the three-lined icon you see in that player and choose Lyrics.

• 

  We can be heroes…

Where can I find the lyrics on my iPhone or iPad?

It’s really quite easy to get to the lyrics on an iOS device:

• Swipe up to invoke the Now Playing window for the current song.
• Swipe a little more and tap the word Show to see the current lyrics.

Alternatively, tap the three-dot icon under the playback controls and choose Lyrics in the next window.

Where can I find the lyrics on Apple TV?

You need to be in the Now Playing view for the currently playing track. Swipe up the screen using your Siri remote and tap the right-hand icon (it looks like a music note with squiggly lines). The lyrics should appear on your TV screen.

Where can I find the lyrics on my PC?

Getting to the lyrics on a PC running iTunes works in exactly the same way as getting to them works on a Mac: Click on the three lines/hamburger icon to the right of the song information at the top of the page, and choose the Lyrics pane.

Where can I find the lyrics on Android?

You can also access song lyrics on Android. This works exactly the same way as it does on an iOS device: Swipe up to invoke the Now Playing window for the current song. Swipe a little more and tap the word Show to see the current lyrics. Alternatively, tap the three-dot icon under the playback controls and choose Lyrics in the next window.

What next?

Apple introduced song lyrics in iOS 10, tvOS 10 and iTunes 12.5 in 2016.

When it did it was responding to one of the most-wanted improvements its music loving audience had. It seems plausible that the company was unable to deliver lyrics earlier because of challenges reaching music lyric publishing deals with music publishing companies.

However, now it has introduced these features it seems to be missing a trick – after all, Siri is quite capable to counting a beat, and if the company could figure out how to deliver karaoke-like colors on the song lyrics as songs played, and (perhaps) tie this up with AR, FaceTime and Animoji, I think it could unleash quite a lot of truly terrible (and some totally good) music-related sing-song fun on the world. I’d quite like that.

“No Roots” by @AliceMerton — Animoji karaoke as inspired by @HarryMcCracken pic.twitter.com/Tfz7992WHN

— Alexsander Akers (@a2) November 3, 2017