How to See Lyrics in Foobar2000
Update 15 Mar 2011: This method no longer works. Here’s an updated way to see the lyrics.
I can’t count how many times I’ve wanted to see the lyrics of the song I was listening to. I would usually fire up Google and search for “[artist name] [song title] lyrics”, then cringe at the awful color scheme the lyrics site was using and try to ignore the ads that somehow snuck through AdBlock Plus. Now it’s a breeze. I just pull up Foobar2000 and read the lyrics. Here’s how you can do it too, in three easy steps.
These instructions assume you already have Foobar2000 installed. If that’s not the case, download it here and run the installer.
Step 1: Download two DLLs
You need two Foobar plugins. They were a pain for me to find, but you’ve got it easy with these links. Dockable Panels and the Lyrics Plugin.
Step 2: Install the plugins
Fortunately, Foobar2000 makes this a snap. Close Foobar2000 if it’s running, then copy the two DLLs you downloaded into foobar2000’s components directory. It’s probably located at C:\Program Files\Foobar2000\components
Step 3: Add the Lyrics panel
Start Foobar2000, go to View -> Dockable Panels and select New…, then right click on the new panel that appeared and select Lyrics (the only option). You can position the lyrics panel wherever you’d like.
That’s it. Now you’ll see the lyrics for whatever song is playing in Foobar2000.
Here’s a screencast illustrating the steps and showing how cool it is to see the lyrics as you play a song.
Thanks:3
You’re welcome.
Thank you so much !!!!!!! that’s pefect and so understandable. In 5 mn i can access to many lyrics. Foobar rox. I loved AMAROK under Linux KDE but new versions are not great.
Now, i’ll try to incrustate the lyrics panel, then incrustate the cover of the albums.
Thank you again, good job.
@Dolgo Foobar really is a great application. Thanks for your comment, I’m glad it worked for you.
Happy listening :)
thnx a lot mate, been searchin’ a way to see lyrics in foobar for quite a time! cheers!
Thanks for the lyrics plugin, I was looking for it everywhere, it isn’t on the official fb2k components page. Thanks a lot!
@Kaushal You’re welcome :)
thank you
It works nicely, thank you.
Does anyone know a solution that will enable you to view lyrics in a tab instead of a dockable panel?
@Gnusense You’re welcome. I looked around for a tab but didn’t find anything.
Thanks in advance
Much better than the “official” foobar2000 component lyrics grabber. Highly recommended. Will it possible to add a moving cursor/or changing color as the song progresses in the lyrics panel, Karaoke style? thanks
@wei I doubt a moving cursor will ever be added. This is just meant to display lyrics, but another plugin called Lyrics Show auto scrolls the lyrics and highlights the current text like a Karaoke machine. You can download it from softpedia and read more about it on the forums.
Was working great until Jan 18th and stopped working… seems that the the browser stopped collecting Lyrics????
@dubi The site used to get lyrics (lyricsplugin.com) changed how to retrieve the lyrics. I’m not sure if anyone will be updating the foobar2000 plugin. I spent a few hours looking through their forums and didn’t find any mention of it. I’ve messaged the developer of the plugin to find out if they’re planning an update.
[…] New Way to Show the Lyrics in Foobar2000 My previous solution to display lyrics in foobar2000 stopped working. I posted a question on the foobar2000 forums but no one knew of a way to get the […]
this link appear on my lirics panel: http://www.lyricsplugin.com with this message: “Upgrade to Lyrics Plugin version 0.4”
But I can only download plugins for WMP, WinAmp and iTunes. Does exist v0.4 plugin for foobar? [I use Win7 and foobar 1.0.3] I really do appreciate any solution
after 30 minutes of google I found this and it seems to work
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t76968-450.html
and it also works with tabs. it’s awesome!
Where can I contact the developer of this plugin and of Lyrics Plugin? You can’t use the old version of the Lyrics Plugin because the developer changed how it talks to the database, but the developer of the foobar plugin hasn’t updated.
I don’t want to use a solution that writes lyrics to my FLACs.
@wharlgarbl I don’t know their contact info.
Nothing happens when I right-click on the new panel
@Mark Try restarting Foobar2000 and making sure that the plugins are enabled (Preferences -> Components)
panel says “upgrade to lyrics plugin 0.4”.
if I follow the link http://www.lyricsplugin.com/ I get trash
may some1 help please,
horst
@mchorst Yup, see the first line of this post. This method no longer works.
@badmadafaka you are my life saver mann, been busy about that problem for an hour.
same “upgrade to lyrics plugin 0.4″ here
Can anybody please help me to install Foobar with lyrics components. I need it please help me out … plz
Sure, how can I help?