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macOS Catalina 10.15.4 Beta 2 Adds Support for Real-Time Lyrics in Apple Music App

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The second beta of macOS Catalina 10.15.4 was released today, and the new update introduces support for time-synced lyrics in the Apple Music app.

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‌Apple Music‌ for Mac previously provided access to lyrics, but they did not scroll in real-time to the music, which is a feature that's been available on iOS since iOS 13 was released. As noted by 9to5Mac, the time-synced lyric feature addition is mentioned in the macOS Catalina 10.15.4 release notes.

Lyrics in ‌Apple Music‌ for Mac can be accessed by playing a song and then clicking on the little speech bubble that's located at the top right of the app.

Not all songs have lyrics or time-synced lyrics, but lyric information is available for most popular titles. Songs with time-synced lyrics will feature an interface that scrolls through the lyrics as they're sung.

When real-time lyrics were introduced for iOS 13 in September 2019, ‌Apple Music‌ lead Oliver Schusser said in an interview that Apple has a team of employees that listen to songs and transcribe the lyrics to ensure their accuracy for use in the time-synced lyrics feature rather than sourcing lyrics from a third-party provider.

Related Forum: macOS Catalina

Top Rated Comments

ErikGrim Avatar
86 months ago

Would be great if they could get Music to remember window placement and sorting preferences before adding frills. But then, why start prioritizing important bugfixes now ('https://www.macrumors.com/2019/10/29/apple-releases-macos-catalina-10-15-1/')?
It's not like there's a whole laundry-list of things to fix ('https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/music-missing-features-bugs-issues-troubleshooting.2189298/') first. *sigh*
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
eji Avatar
86 months ago
Would be great if they could get Music to remember window placement and sorting preferences before adding frills. But then, why start prioritizing important bugfixes now ('https://www.macrumors.com/2019/10/29/apple-releases-macos-catalina-10-15-1/')?
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jhfenton Avatar
86 months ago

I wonder if this feature is designed to work in other "non english" world languages?
It works on a song-by-song basis as Apple works through their global catalog. It works on a lot of the French, Spanish, and German music that I listen to.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Internet Enzyme Avatar
86 months ago
it appears that the miniplayer has been altered slightly. It has the stop light now.

What happens when you cliick the green fullscreen button?



This fullscreen mode can also be accessed through a new menu item and keyboard shortcut

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Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
flat five Avatar
86 months ago

I wonder if this feature is designed to work in other "non english" world languages?
check out this song on an iPhone

https://music.apple.com/us/album/band-of-gypsies/1413278413?i=1413278433
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ErikGrim Avatar
86 months ago

it appears that the miniplayer has been altered slightly. It has the stop light now.

What happens when you cliick the green fullscreen button?



This fullscreen mode can also be accessed through a new menu item and keyboard shortcut
Cheers for discovering. Added to wiki post.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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