Oct 15, 2006 - 02:05:34 CDT
Sheryl Cermak writes, "Keith, can you help me find any Web sites in which to obtain free lyrics to songs?"There are many sites that answer Cermak's question - and that's a big problem in the eyes of the music industry.
The Music Publishers Association and the National Music Publishers Association have been trying to shut down lyric, music score and guitar tab sites. Their argument: The lyrics, scores and tabs are copyrighted, and people who post or host lyrics online without permission are violating applicable copyright laws.
MPA President Lauren Keiser was famously quoted last December as saying, "if authorities can throw in some jail time, I think we'll be a little more effective."
Some publishers are looking to either create commercial sites where you would pay to download accurate, valid lyrics or make existing lyrics sites pay licensing fees to host valid lyrics provided by the music publishing industry.
The current community lyric sites depend on people uploading lyrics they have either copied from the liner notes of CDs or written down by listening to songs. While printed lyrics are quite accurate, there is sometimes a difference between what is printed and what the artist actually recorded.
Lyrics that are copied by listening to a song can vary in accuracy from person to person. For example, in the Blondie song, "Rapture," one line in the song is either, "DJ's spinning are savin' my mind," or, "DJ spinning I said "My, My," depending on which lyrics site you visit. Which version is the correct one? They sound very close to each other. Unless you have a valid, printed copy of the lyrics from either the CD or the lead singer, it's open to interpretation.
On a side note, there are a number of Web sites dedicated to misheard and misunderstood song lyrics. Check out www.kissthisguy.com and www.amiright.com for a laugh or two.
Keep these inaccuracies in mind when using lyrics sites. Don't assume that what you find is the correct and authoritative version.
With that in mind, here are some of the more popular lyrics Web sites. With the music publishing industry threatening to sue sites like these out of existence, check them out while you still can:
Lyrics.com
www.lyrics.com
Browse alphabetically by artist. There's a "search" button listed, but it didn't work when I tried it recently. A fairly good collection of popular lyrics.
AZ Lyrics Universe
www.azlyrics.com
A very good collection. Browse or search. There also is a link where you can correct any inaccurate lyrics you find.
Sing365.com
www.sing365.com
In addition to the standard browse and search options, the site also posts links to collections by popular artists (for example, Avril Lavigne, Hilary Duff, Shakira).
Lyrics Planet
www.lyricsplanet.com
A very good, very deep site. Browse by title or artist, search by title, artist or words in the lyrics.
Can you Digg it?
My online department colleague, Dustin Hoffman, brought this one to my attention. Digg Labs (labs.digg.com) is the online research and development center for the popular social content Web site. At www.digg.com, people submit interesting article links and the public votes, or "diggs," the article - either "promoting" the story to the Digg home page or rejecting it.
Digg Labs presents a unique way of viewing how the public is viewing and reacting to stories posted every day (Digg calls this "realtime Flash visualization").
In "swarm" mode, stories appear as circles and people accessing the stories appear as smaller yellow dots. These dots move from story to story. In many instances, a lot of dots will surround a story, indicating a lot of interest in that story. The collection of circles and dots looks like molecules moving around in a liquid.
In "stack" mode, a list of up to 100 stories is presented as a vertical bar chart. Each time a story is accessed by a user, a block falls from above in the column representing the story. As more people access the story, the stack of blocks for the story grows taller. At a glance, you can then tell which stories are getting a lot of attention.
It's interesting and mesmerizing to watch either presentation mode. Check it out for yourself. Note: JavaScript must be enabled in your browser and you'll need the most current version of the free Flash player plugin for your browser.
(Keith Darnay is the webmaster and designer for bismarcktribune.com. His Web site, featuring this column going back to 1995, is at www.darnay.com.iec.)
Hules wrote on Nov 4, 2006 11:39 AM:
Not yet wrote on Oct 19, 2006 10:27 AM:
john wrote on Oct 15, 2006 8:56 PM:
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