iTunesLyrics

A small Windows utility that fills in missing lyrics for the tracks in your iTunes library. Select songs (or let it scan the whole library), click a button, and it fetches lyrics and writes them back to the track's metadata so they travel with the file.

Originally a fork of the discontinued iLyrics that kept the LyricWiki integration alive after the upstream project dropped it. Now that LyricWiki itself is gone, the current version pulls lyrics from the Genius API instead.

Requirements

• Windows with iTunes installed (the app talks to iTunes through COM, so a working local install is required — it won't run without one).
• .NET 10 runtime (the app is a self-contained WinForms executable, so no separate install is needed when using the ClickOnce or portable builds).
• A free Genius API access token — create one at https://genius.com/api-clients and paste it into Settings → Genius API Token on first launch.

Install

ClickOnce Installer (auto-updates)

The ClickOnce channel is the recommended install — it checks for updates in the background and keeps you on the latest release. A legacy NSIS installer script lives in iTuneslyrics/InstallerScript/ but is no longer part of the release pipeline.

Using it

1. Launch iTunesLyrics. iTunes will be brought to the foreground.
2. Paste your Genius token under Settings (one-time).
3. Either:
   • Select tracks in iTunes and hit the process button, or
   • Check Fix to scan the whole library for lyrics containing replacement characters (�) and re-fetch them.
4. Pick a mode:
   • Automatic — results stream into a grid as each track is looked up (Found / Not Found / Skipped).
   • Manual — review each match before accepting it.
5. Check Overwrite if you want existing lyrics replaced instead of skipped.

Building from source

dotnet build iTuneslyrics.sln

Requires the .NET 10 SDK. NuGet restore happens automatically. Open iTuneslyrics.sln in Visual Studio 2022 or later, or build from the command line with dotnet build.

The iTunes COM interop DLL (lib/Interop.iTunesLib.dll) is pre-generated and checked into the repo so CI builds work without a local iTunes install. To regenerate it (requires iTunes):

tlbimp "C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunes.exe" /out:lib\Interop.iTunesLib.dll /namespace:iTunesLib

Credits

All credit for the original utility goes to the authors of iLyrics. This fork exists only to keep it working against current lyrics sources.

Feedback

Bugs, requests, or questions: please open an issue on the GitHub issues page.

Changelog

1.5.0 — 2026-04-26

• Migrated from .NET Framework 4.7.2 to .NET 10.
• Dark mode support -- the app follows the Windows system theme automatically.
• Replaced the Genius.NET library with a lightweight direct HTTP client
• Build system modernized: dotnet build replaces msbuild/nuget restore

1.4.0 — 2026-04-19

• Fuzzy matching (FuzzySharp) for more accurate Genius search results.
• Always-on-top..
• ClickOnce and portable ZIP builds via GitHub Actions.

1.3.0.0 — 2026

• Migrated from LyricWiki to the Genius API (LyricWiki was discontinued).
• Added a Settings menu for storing your Genius API token in %APPDATA%\iTunesLyrics\config.txt instead of hardcoding it.

1.2.1.5 — 2015-04-26

• Added HtmlAgilityPack as a reference.
• Changed publish location.

1.2.1.4 — 2014-10-31

• Stripped the scripted ad LyricWiki was injecting into lyrics.

1.2.1 — 2013-08-31

• Project uploaded to GitHub.

1.2 — 2012-07-15

• LyricWiki support restored after the upstream API change.

Original changelog

1.1.1 — 2008-09-19

• 1.1.1.2 fixed crashes while processing deleted files.
• 1.1.1.1 blank artist/name tags are skipped in batch mode.
• 1.1.1.0 ability to overwrite lyrics in automatic mode.
• 1.1.0.1 UTF-8 character support (thanks to davidreis).

1.1 — 2007-03-07

• A few bug fixes.
• Update now skips songs that already have lyrics in iTunes.

1.0 — 2007-02-08

• Initial release.