Oops, not the proper forum. Move it please to Feedback and Ideas

It's been mentioned before, but it's impossible as they're under copyright.

How would this be a copyright issue? Music once played can be "written down". Well once you write it down, there it is right? That is not a copyright issue....if it is user submitted, the problem would be people putting down the wrongs lyrics....it would have to be correctable in some way by any user...a wiki page or something.

I think it sould be changed to a "linking" system. In this way a user would simply add a link to where the lyrics can be found online for free or whatever. This would not have any "copyright" issues as it is only a link to where it can be found.

I see this alot, how does sleevenotez.com do it if it's illegal? They use one of those lyric sites.. If you've not used sleevenotez.com it maybe an alternative I guess. It takes scrobbled data from your last.fm account and displays video's, pictures, lyrics and wiki of the band. It looks like the below... The only problem with lyrics is that you must scrobble the song first before the site reloads the information, so maybe useless to some in that respect...





Can last.fm do the picture thing which reads flickr tags, or video's from youtube? Or is that out of the question also? Alas the band wiki which is imported from allofmusic which is updated frequently, would be useful you know, to get up-todate news of your band...

I understand that but what about lyric sites like www.lyricwiki.org and www.christian-lyrics.net I know the latter is legal, they partnered with labels, the former won awards for being one of the best lyric databases which is subject to "fair use" laws. It could be legal in some counties illegal in others? I dunno... some of these sites don't really say.

Most CD's I have have lyrics with them, others like EP's which just come with a CD sleeve have no lyrics with them at all. :(

yea

I can unerstand the question/idea to have the lyrics here on-site or in the client. As a matter of fact, I think that would be an added value.
I fail to see the added value in providing pages linking to other sites that contain the lyrics, because it would link me to a site that has nothing to do with Last.FM (which is not a really smart commercial idea) and furthermore -as Russ pointed out- Last.FM has deals with major record labels (Warner, EMI). I think these guys are more willing to be nice to Last.FM if they are not walking the less legal roads that are to be found in lyrics-land...
And it might be that there is an-sich nothing wrong with linking to these sites, but that doesn't automatically make it right in everybody's eyes.
Now, if you'd run a site like this, with legal traps like this... would you really want to make that bet??

Me personaly? No I wouldn't. I just see that there are several people that would like to be able to get the lyrics in "some way".

Like I said, I wasn't sure about the legal issues and am glad you laid it out here. Really before anything else comes those major record labels, so the point is taken. It's pretty sad that "lyrics" are covited that much though. I mean after a person has listened to a song they "know" the lyrics (for the most part) so I don't understand why the copyright laws are the way they are, but it is so we can deal with it.

The idea of linking to external sites is that the page would open in a "new" window to allow the user to get what that user WANTS (the lyrics) and still have last.fm open in the origianl window to cary on with what they were doing.

On the other hand, from a "commercial" perspective this could go both ways....you could view it as "taking a user away" from last.fm or you can see it as a network and figure out a way to have a link from last.fm added to the site that is being submitted, thereby putting your site out there in more places. This is something YOU would have to work out if you went that rout, but don't limit yourselves.

A site with lyrics may get a few hundred visits a week, but if you contacted them because a user submited (awaiting aproval) them as a lyrics site to a band or artist and told them they may be getting several thousand visits a week from your guys, I seriously DOUBT they would reject putting a linking BACK to last.fm (more exposure for you), plus you may just pick up a new user...the owner of the site....none the less I get where you are coming from and the comment above: "Maybe we'll be able to get enough lyrics from our partners to make it worthwhile at some point, but don't bank on it.", posted by Russ says it all....lets just hope.

Great idea!! I second you, man!!!

It would be great to fully understand a lyric. If you don't speak a language very fluid you can confuse a word easily

This is actually done in Amarok which is only for Linux. I do understand it is not possible on last.fm website and I,m not arguing for last.fm to do the same, but I would like to info Linux users that they properly have the feature already. Maby this even could get some XP users to change :-)

I do not know if Amarok developers break any laws with this, but it works fine with the embedded Last.fm player.

Well, it looks as:

Example - Lyric

Example wiki-integration

I don't understand the whole copyright issue, why it exists.. I do understand that there has to be some kind of control on reproduction, but rules like this keep great site features away from Last.FM
Personally I think, like uploading music & videos (controlled by the labels), Last.FM should/could do the same for the lyrics. It would be an added value for sure!

Grtzz

It's pretty sad if I can listen the lyrics but I CAN'T see them written.. that makes no sense!

anyway you should find a way to show them without allowing them to copy/paste... maybe like pics

Showing the lyrics would be good for musicians.. because they would work 'harder' on them (or just think twice what they're gona sing!)

(I'm talking as listener and lyricist)
La letra pequeña