LRC (file format)

Simple LRC format was introduced by Taiwan-based Kuo (Djohan) Shiang-shiang's Lyrics Displayer. It was one of the first programs, if not the first, that attempted to simulate Karaoke performance. It usually displays a whole line of lyrics, but it is possible to display a word at a time, such as one would see in modern Karaoke machines, by creating a time tag for each word rather than each line. Kuo's Lyrics Displayer was created in 1998 and was accompanied with a plug-in for Winamp.[1]

The Line Time Tags are in the format [mm:ss.xx] where mm is minutes, ss is seconds and xx is hundredths of a second. Basic example:

[00:12.00]Line 1 lyrics
[00:17.20]Line 2 lyrics

[00:21.10][00:45.10]Repeating lyrics (e.g. chorus)
...
[mm:ss.xx]last lyrics line

ID tags may appear before the lyrics,[2] although some players may not recognize or simply ignore this.

[ar:Lyrics artist]

[al:Album where the song is from]

[ti:Lyrics (song) title]

[au:Creator of the Songtext]
[length:How long the song is]
[by:Creator of the LRC file]

[offset:+/- Overall timestamp adjustment in milliseconds, + shifts time up, - shifts down i.e. a positive value causes lyrics to appear sooner, a negative value causes them to appear later]
 
[re:The player or editor that created the LRC file]

[ve:version of program]

Example with ID tags:

[ar:Chubby Checker oppure  Beatles, The]
[al:Hits Of The 60's - Vol. 2 – Oldies]
[ti:Let's Twist Again]
[au:Written by Kal Mann / Dave Appell, 1961]
[length: 2:23]

[00:12.00]Naku Penda Piya-Naku Taka Piya-Mpenziwe
[00:15.30]Some more lyrics ...
...

Available only in Walaoke from Walasoft. The ability to change and specify the gender of the lyrics by using M: Male, F: Female, D: Duet.

Example:

[00:12.00]Line 1 lyrics
[00:17.20]F: Line 2 lyrics
[00:21.10]M: Line 3 lyrics
[00:24.00]Line 4 lyrics
[00:28.25]D: Line 5 lyrics
[00:29.02]Line 6 lyrics

Let's say we use blue for male, red for female and pink for Duet.

1. Line 1 using the default color (blue) when no tag is found.
2. Line 2 lyrics start with red when F: is found.
3. Line 3 lyrics start with blue when M: is found.
4. Line 4 lyrics stays blue when no tag is found.
5. Line 5 lyrics start with pink when D: is found.
6. Line 6 lyrics stays pink when no tag is found.

Enhanced LRC format is an extension of Simple LRC Format developed by the designer of A2 Media Player.

The differences:

• The line timestamp is the end of the previous word.
  • This allows LRC players to determine the duration of the previous word, and when to display the next line.
• Adds a Word Time Tag in the format: <mm:ss.xx>.

Format example:

[mm:ss.xx] <mm:ss.xx> line 1 word 1 <mm:ss.xx> line 1 word 2 <mm:ss.xx> ... line 1 last word <mm:ss.xx>
[mm:ss.xx] <mm:ss.xx> line 2 word 1 <mm:ss.xx> line 2 word 2 <mm:ss.xx> ... line 2 last word <mm:ss.xx>
...
[mm:ss.xx] <mm:ss.xx> last line word 1 <mm:ss.xx> last line word 2 <mm:ss.xx> ...  last line last word <mm:ss.xx>

Example of an Enhanced LRC file:

[ar: Jefferson Airplane]
[al: Surrealistic Pillow]
[au: Jefferson Airplane]
[length: 2:58]
[by: lrc-maker]
[ti: Somebody to Love]

[00:00.00] <00:00.04> When <00:00.16> the <00:00.82> truth <00:01.29> is <00:01.63> found <00:03.09> to <00:03.37> be <00:05.92> lies 
[00:06.47] <00:07.67> And <00:07.94> all <00:08.36> the <00:08.63> joy <00:10.28> within <00:10.53> you <00:13.09> dies 
[00:13.34] <00:14.32> Don't <00:14.73> you <00:15.14> want <00:15.57> somebody <00:16.09> to <00:16.46> love

• Huawei's, Samsung's, and Xiaomi's smartphone built-in Music Player
• Meizu's M3 Music Card[3] and M6 Mini Player
• Creative Labs' MuVo V100
• Archos 5, when LRC file found with the same name as the song
• Rockbox compatible devices. See Manual entry
• Nokia's Symbian devices: "Music Player with lyrics available for selected software versions of Nokia 5800XM, X6 and 5230"
• Sony NWZ-E350 Series/E450 Series/E460 Series/E470 Series/A15/A17 Walkman; Sony Tablet S (With an embedded music player based on Android)
• Caanoo, when LRC file found with the same name as the song
• GP2X Wiz, when LRC file found with the same name as the song
• TEAC MP-222, when LRC file found with the same name as the song
• Transcend's MP330,[4] when LRC file found with the same name as the song
• Cocktail Audio X40, X50 when LRC file found with the same name as the song

Modern Applications

• Musicolet Music Player for Android (supports Creating and Viewing synchronized lyrics in LRC format) [5]
• Akari's LRC Maker (open-source online simple LRC maker/editor) (GitHub link)
• LyricsX (open-source, MacOS App Store approved application to view lyrics on screen and/or Touch Bar of MacBooks) (App Store link) (GitHub link)
• LRC Maker (online simple and enhanced LRC maker/editor)
• KaraFun Player (a third-party application that can visualise both simple and enhanced lrc files)

Other

• Tauon Music Box (for Linux)
• Sony Media Go (for Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP, Create and edit lyrics)
• K-Multimedia Player
• lrcShow-X (free software for X Window System, uses D-Bus to communicate with audio player)[6]
• MiniLyrics (for Windows, Mac OS X & Android, own a large LRC database)
• StepMania[7]
• OSD Lyrics (for Linux)[8]
• Kodi (up to v15[9]) / Boxee
• Plex (software)[10]
• Foobar2000 (with foo_uie_lyrics component)
• Mediabox (for Nokia Maemo)[11]
• ptlyrics (for Palm OS)
• MusicBee
• LineSpec [12] displays lyrics in combination with a few media players
• YouTube Movie Maker[13] (can make lyric videos)
• Lyrimer [14]
• Neutron Player for Android Mobile Devices[15]
• AutoLyric[16]
• AIMP (with WebLyrics v0.2 Preview and MyClouds plugin)
• Retro Music Player
• Medoly (for Android, also supports Enhanced LRC formats and other lyric formats)
• LRCMakerPro for Android Devices
• Vanilla Music (with Lyrics search plugin)[17]
• OneStagePlayer [18]
• mpv
• SubtitleEdit [19]
• Poweramp (beta)