lyrics-video.ai
Guide
How to Add Lyrics to a Song
If you search this exact phrase, you’re almost never asking about a video. Real intent splits two ways: getting your lyrics to display on Apple Music, Spotify, or another platform, or embedding the words into the audio file itself.
SarahUpdated Jul 23, 20267 min read
Pick the Branch That Matches What You Actually Want
Distributor / licensing
Musixmatch licenses and syncs the lyrics shown on Spotify; <a href="https://support.distrokid.com/hc/en-us/articles/360013534574-Adding-Lyrics-to-Your-Music">DistroKid</a> and similar distributors have their own per-song lyrics field. This is the path for public streaming platforms.
Direct on the platform
Apple Music for Artists has its own separate submission field under Artist Content, independent of Spotify’s Musixmatch-based system.
File metadata
<a href="https://community.mp3tag.de/t/inserting-lyrics-using-mp3-tag/19569">Mp3tag</a> or Music.app let you paste lyrics into the audio file’s own USLT tag, for a personal library, no platform involved.
Before You Start
Have the finished audio file and, ideally, an accurate written-out version of the lyrics ready before you touch any platform’s submission form. If you don’t have the lyrics typed out yet, sort that first, by typing them yourself or by auto-transcribing and proofreading. Also know which platforms your song is actually on, since Spotify, Apple Music, and file-level metadata each need a separate submission.
How to Add Lyrics to Your Song on Streaming Platforms
Step 1
Get an accurate lyrics transcript first
Type it out yourself, or if you don’t have a clean copy, upload the audio to a transcription tool and proofread the output. lyrics-video.ai’s audio-upload path does this automatically as part of building a lyric video, and the transcript can be reused here even if you don’t need the video itself.Step 2
Submit through your distributor, if you have one
Services like DistroKid have a dedicated lyrics field per song. Paste your proofread lyrics in exactly as written, including verse and chorus breaks.Step 3
For Spotify specifically, go through Musixmatch
Spotify’s own lyrics come from Musixmatch, not a direct Spotify upload. Create or verify a Musixmatch Pro account (free tier covers this), link it to your Spotify for Artists profile, then add your lyrics under the song’s Lyrics tab.Step 4
Sync the timing if you want word-by-word highlighting
Musixmatch’s Sync tab lets you click through the track and mark when each line starts, producing timed, highlighted lyrics rather than a static block of text.Step 5
Submit separately to Apple Music, if applicable
Apple Music for Artists has its own lyrics field, independent of whatever you submitted to Musixmatch for Spotify.Step 6
Check back after a short delay
Submitted lyrics typically take anywhere from a day to about two weeks to appear, depending on the platform and review queue.
Embedding Lyrics Into the Audio File Itself
If your goal is a personal media library rather than a public streaming platform, the process is different and faster. In Mp3tag, right-click the file, open Extended Tags, and paste your lyrics into the USLT (Unsynchronized Lyrics) field. On a Mac, Music.app does the same thing through Get Info, then the Lyrics tab. The lyrics travel with the file itself, with no platform review delay, but they won’t appear on Spotify or Apple Music unless you separately submit them there too.
If You Actually Wanted a Lyric Video
If what brought you here was picturing a video with the words appearing on screen, karaoke-style or as a kinetic-typography clip for YouTube or TikTok, that’s a different job; none of the steps above put lyrics on screen. The main lyric video guide covers that task directly. lyrics-video.ai builds the visual for you and syncs the lyrics on top automatically, free and without a watermark, the more direct starting point for that version of “add lyrics to a song.”
Common Mistakes
- Submitting lyrics that don’t match the recording exactly. Ad-libs, repeated choruses, or a spoken intro easy to miss when typing from memory all cause mismatches.
- Only submitting to one platform. Spotify (via Musixmatch) and Apple Music are separate systems; one doesn’t help the other.
- Skipping formatting for structure. Verse and chorus breaks, or bracketed section labels, make displayed lyrics easier to follow and reduce sync errors.
- Expecting instant results. Review and propagation delays are normal; day-one absence usually isn’t broken, just not processed yet.
Common Questions
Do I need to be the artist or rights holder to submit lyrics?
Generally yes; lyrics submission tools are built around an artist or label account (Spotify for Artists, Apple Music for Artists, or your distributor’s dashboard), not a listener-side feature.
How long does it take for submitted lyrics to show up?
It varies by platform and review queue; expect anywhere from about a day up to roughly two weeks, not instant.
Can I get synced, word-by-word lyrics on Spotify?
Yes, through Musixmatch’s Sync tool, which lets you mark the timing of each line against the track separately from just submitting the static text.
What if I only want lyrics in my own music library, not on a streaming platform?
Use a tag editor like Mp3tag or Music.app’s Get Info to paste lyrics into the file’s own metadata; this shows up in that player’s lyrics view without needing any platform submission at all.
Is this the same as making a lyric video?
No. Adding lyrics to a song, in the sense covered here, means the words appear as text when the song is played on a platform or in a media player. A lyric video is a separate video file with the words on screen, covered in the main lyric video guide.
Want the Words On Screen Instead?
lyrics-video.ai builds a full lyric video for you, free, no watermark. Type a prompt, upload your track, or paste a Suno link, and let it sync automatically.
Try lyrics-video.ai — freeRelated guides
Guide
How to Make a Lyric Video
If you actually wanted the words on screen rather than embedded in a platform or file, this is the direct walkthrough.
Guide
How to Make a Music Video With Lyrics
Combining real footage or generated visuals with a lyrics overlay, for a fuller release package around your song.
Guide
How to Make a Karaoke Video
The word-by-word highlight and sing-along conventions that make a karaoke video different from a standard lyric video.
Sources
- Send Your Lyrics to Apple Music - Send Your Lyrics to Apple Music— Apple’s own artist-support guide, used for the Apple Music submission steps.
- Managing Your Lyrics on Spotify - Managing Your Lyrics on Spotify— Spotify’s own support article, used to confirm the Musixmatch-based mechanism.
- Adding Lyrics to Your Music - Adding Lyrics to Your Music— DistroKid’s help center article, used for the distributor submission step.
- How to Add and Sync Lyrics in Musixmatch - How to Add and Sync Lyrics in Musixmatch— used for the Musixmatch account setup and Sync tab steps.
- Inserting Lyrics Using Mp3tag - Inserting Lyrics Using Mp3tag— the Mp3tag community’s own guide, used for the USLT/file-metadata section.
