LyricsLay

Real-time floating lyrics overlay for Windows.

LyricsLay is a lightweight desktop application that automatically detects the music playing on your computer and displays synced lyrics in a floating overlay over any application, game, browser, or video player.

The goal is simple — no browser extensions, no player integrations, no manual searching, no switching windows. Just play music and LyricsLay handles the rest.

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Features

• Automatic song recognition using Shazam
• Real-time synced lyrics with YouTube Music-style scroll animation
• Floating always-on-top transparent overlay
• Click-through — mouse clicks pass straight through to the app underneath
• Works with any source — YouTube, YouTube Music, Spotify, VLC, or anything playing through your speakers
• Global hotkeys
• System tray controls
• Local lyrics caching — repeat songs load instantly
• Romanization support for Japanese and Korean lyrics

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Supported Platforms

Platform	Status
Windows 10	✅ Supported
Windows 11	✅ Supported
macOS	Planned
Linux	Planned

Currently Windows-only because the application uses WASAPI loopback audio capture.

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Installation

Option 1 — Download Release (Recommended)

Go to the Releases section and download:

LyricsLay_Setup.exe

or portable version:

LyricsLay.exe

Run the installer or executable. The app will appear in the Windows system tray.

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Option 2 — Run From Source

Requirements: Python 3.11+, Windows 10/11

git clone https://github.com/asim63/LyricsLay.git
cd LyricsLay
python -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python main.py

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Windows SmartScreen Warning

Because LyricsLay is an unsigned open-source application, Windows may show:

Windows protected your PC

This is normal for newly released indie/open-source software. To continue:

1. Click More info
2. Click Run anyway

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Hotkeys

Action	Shortcut
Toggle overlay	Ctrl + Shift + L
Force reidentify	Ctrl + Shift + K

Both hotkeys are fully customisable — right-click the tray icon → Settings.

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Overlay Controls

Control	Action
⟳ button (top-left)	Force sync / re-identify current song
× button (top-right)	Hide overlay
⠿ handle (right side)	Drag to reposition
⌟ handle (bottom-right)	Drag to resize
Alt + drag	Drag the overlay directly

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System Tray

Right-click the tray icon to:

• Show / hide overlay
• Toggle romanization ON / OFF
• Open settings
• Reset overlay position
• Quit LyricsLay

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Romanization

When enabled, lyrics in Japanese and Korean are automatically converted to phonetic Latin script so you can follow along without knowing the script.

Language	Original	Romanized
Japanese	こんにちは	konnichiha
Korean	안녕하세요	annyeonghaseyo

Toggle from the tray menu. Takes effect on the next song.

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How It Works

LyricsLay continuously listens to system audio using Windows WASAPI loopback.

System Audio
    ↓
Song Recognition (Shazam)
    ↓
Lyrics Fetching (LRCLIB → Lyrics.ovh → Genius)
    ↓
Real-Time Overlay Display

LRCLIB is tried first — it has time-synced LRC lyrics and succeeds for the majority of popular songs. Lyrics.ovh and Genius are used as fallbacks. Synced lyrics are cached locally after the first fetch.

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Tech Stack

Component	Technology
UI Framework	PyQt6
Audio Capture	PyAudioWPatch (WASAPI loopback)
Song Recognition	ShazamIO
Audio Processing	NumPy
Lyrics Fetching	requests + BeautifulSoup
Hotkeys	pynput
Japanese Romanization	pykakasi
Korean Romanization	hangul-romanize

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Project Structure

LyricsLay/
│
├── assets/
├── src/
│   ├── core/        # audio, recognizer, cache, settings
│   ├── lyrics/      # fetcher, parser, romanizer
│   └── ui/          # overlay, tray, settings window
│
├── main.py
├── config.py
├── requirements.txt
└── README.md

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Known Limitations

• Windows-only currently
• Internet connection required for song identification
• Recognition may fail for very obscure or regional tracks
• Lyrics quality depends on third-party databases

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Planned Features

• Live caption fallback mode for unrecognised songs
• macOS and Linux support
• Theme and font customisation
• Karaoke-style word-level highlighting
• Auto-updater

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Privacy

LyricsLay:

• Does not collect user data
• Does not require an account
• Does not track usage
• Does not upload microphone audio

Only short audio samples required for song identification are sent to Shazam.

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Contributing

Pull requests, suggestions, and issue reports are welcome.

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Acknowledgements

• PyQt6
• ShazamIO
• LRCLIB
• Lyrics.ovh
• Genius

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License

MIT — see LICENSE

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This entire project is completely vibecoded.

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Current Release: v1.0.0-beta · Status: Active Development