1. iLyrics
iLyrics is the good place to start simply because it’s currently a free app. As its name implies, it will find lyrics within iOS apps. It does. It works very well at displaying the lyrics that it finds for the songs playing. The problem is that it doesn’t find all the lyrics. I listen to some very obscure music. Additionally, I’m a big American Idol fan, and I download songs throughout the season, but these don’t come up with lyrics in this app. It’s easy, but not always effective.
2. LyricFind
LyricFind works much the same as iLyrics. One difference is that it also includes album and artist info. It’s a great addition, although it doesn’t have the aesthetic appeal that iLyrics does. That’s all in the free version. In the paid version, there is also the ability to search by title, artist, and known lyrics. You can also submit lyrics that you have found yourself, or corrections, and they will see about changing or adding them..
3. Instant Lyrics
The simply named Instant Lyrics does a better job of finding the lyrics than some of the others do, but the reason is because it works through Safari, and also costs $1.99. It utilizes multiple lyrics search engines in Safari to search for the lyrics you’re looking for. The problem with this is that it requires a lot of bouncing around. After that song finished playing, you have to initiate the app again, call up the next song, and it then goes back to Safari again. If you’re playing a lot of songs, it’s not very applicable. However, you can have it store your favorite songs for quicker recognition.
4. Soundhound
Soundhound used to be much more limiting than it is. The free version used to only allow a certain number of music searches, but now it’s unlimited. It includes iPod controls to all of your stored music and will also bring up the lyrics. Again, it’s only if the app can find it.
SoundHound has one other large benefit. It can identify songs by listening to it play on another device, such as the radio, TV, etc. In that way it works very much like Shazam. Yet, it also searches for songs by your voice. You can sing or hum into it and it can find those songs based on your own knowledge. It also has a field where you can type in name and artist. Once it identifies a song, it comes up with links to download it, album art, a google search of lyrics, etc.
While there is no lyrics app for the iPad that does everything I want it to, from finding, displaying, and editing of lyrics, it seems Soundhound offers me the most options, and is free as well. While it doesn’t find all the lyrics, neither do the others. On top of all that, it has that great search function. For the more obscure songs that it won’t find, I can always bounce back to the Lyrics app. What about you? How do you find lyrics for your songs in iPad?
