LRC (file format)

Simple format

Simple LRC format was introduced by 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.

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.

• Normal example:

[00:12.00]Line 1 lyrics
[00:17.20]Line 2 lyrics
[00:21.10]Line 3 lyrics
...
[mm:ss.xx]last lyrics line

ID Tags may appear before the lyrics,^[1] 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]
 
[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 ...
...

Simple format extended

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

Enhanced format

Enhanced LRC format is an extension of Simple LRC Format developed by the designer of A2 Media Player. It adds an extra Word Time Tag in the format: <mm:ss.xx>.

Example of an Enhanced LRC file:

[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>

Hardware

• Huawei's Standard Music Player
• Xiaomi's Standard Music Player
• Meizu's M3 Music Card^[2] 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-E353/E354/E355/E463/E475/A15/A17 Walkman. Serie S Tablet (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,^[3] 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

Software

• 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)^[4]
• MiniLyrics (for Windows, Mac OS X & Android, own a large LRC database)
• StepMania^[5]
• OSD Lyrics (for Linux)^[6]
• Kodi (up to v15^[7]) / Boxee
• Plex (software) ^[8]
• Foobar2000 (with foo_uie_lyrics component)
• Mediabox (for Nokia Maemo)^[9]
• ptlyrics (for Palm OS)
• MusicBee
• LineSpec ^[10] displays lyrics in combination with a few media players
• YouTube Movie Maker^[11] (can make lyric videos)
• Lyrimer ^[12]
• Neutron Player for Android Mobile Devices^[13]
• AutoLyric^[14]
• AIMP (with WebLyrics v0.2 Preview and MyClouds plugin)
• Retro Music Player