Song Lyrics plugin will soon stop working due to musixmatch changes

[erland]

Just for information to anyone using my Song Lyrics plugin, the Song Lyrics plugin is likely going to stop working good very soon.

The reason is that musixmatch have informed me that they can no longer support free API access, their minimum fee for a commercial agreement is currently $20 000/year which is unrealistic for me to take out of my own pockets and it's also totally unrealistic to get anywhere close to this amount if I would try to start charging people for the Song Lyrics plugin and give everything to musixmatch. I suspect we shouldn't blame musixmatch for this, it's probably the music industry that requires them to charge people who want to view lyrics, I think it's great that musixmatch could offer lyrics for free for non commercial usage as long as they did.

So if you want to continue enjoying lyrics on your Squeezebox you now have to put the lyrics in the LYRICS tag of your music files, the advantage of that is that it's going to continue to work in the future since you aren't dependent on an online service or plugin.

I'm really sorry for the inconvenience this is causing all lyrics lovers, but unfortunately there isn't anything I can do about it.

If anyone knows another lyrics source that offers an API let me know and I'll look into the possibilities to integrate that instead of musixmatch. If it doesn't provide an API it's not an option because it will require too much work and too high risk to maintain something that parses websites to get lyrics data. Song Lyrics already supports lyrics from chartlyrics.com but previously their data hasn't been as good as musixmatch.com and they also have some legal issues which probably results in that it's just a matter of time until that stops working too.

[Jeff52]

Thanks for the information--even though it is bad news.

[ddewey]

Quoting erland (erland.5r4lnb (AT) no-mx (DOT) forums.slimdevices.com):

>
> Just for information to anyone using my Song Lyrics plugin, the Song
> Lyrics plugin is likely going to stop working good very soon.
>
> The reason is that musixmatch have informed me that they can no longer
> support free API access, their minimum fee for a commercial agreement is
> currently $20 000/year which is unrealistic for me to take out of my own
> pockets and it's also totally unrealistic to get anywhere close to this
> amount if I would try to start charging people for the Song Lyrics
> plugin and give everything to musixmatch. I suspect we shouldn't blame
> musixmatch for this, it's probably the music industry that requires them
> to charge people who want to view lyrics, I think it's great that
> musixmatch could offer lyrics for free for non commercial usage as long
> as they did.
>
> So if you want to continue enjoying lyrics on your Squeezebox you now
> have to put the lyrics in the LYRICS tag of your music files, the
> advantage of that is that it's going to continue to work in the future
> since you aren't dependent on an online service or plugin.
>
> I'm really sorry for the inconvenience this is causing all lyrics
> lovers, but unfortunately there isn't anything I can do about it.
>
> If anyone knows another lyrics source that offers an API let me know and
> I'll look into the possibilities to integrate that instead of
> musixmatch. If it doesn't provide an API it's not an option because it
> will require too much work and too high risk to maintain something that
> parses websites to get lyrics data. Song Lyrics already supports lyrics
> from chartlyrics.com but previously their data hasn't been as good as
> musixmatch.com and they also have some legal issues which probably
> results in that it's just a matter of time until that stops working too.

Thanks Erland for everything you do.

[Metazargo]

Since I have the Lyrics plug-in I'm even more in love with iPeng, SSS (Logitech Media Server) and the Boxes itself.

I would be even willing to pay for such a service... reasonable amount, similar to the small app stuff in the stores.

My fear is that with the shift to the UE Music Library server it will take long until the ecosystem will reach a certain maturity with distributions on NAS and cool plug-ins, as yours. The wrong time to think about investing in a unclear future.

Thanks.

[Metazargo]

...a certain maturity with distributions on NAS...

Some progress http://downloads.slimdevices.com/nig...x.php?ver=10.0

[erland]

Since I have the Lyrics plug-in I'm even more in love with iPeng, SSS (Logitech Media Server) and the Boxes itself.

I would be even willing to pay for such a service... reasonable amount, similar to the small app stuff in the stores.

How much would you be willing to pay per year for lyrics support ?

My fear is that with the shift to the UE Music Library server it will take long until the ecosystem will reach a certain maturity with distributions on NAS and cool plug-ins, as yours. The wrong time to think about investing in a unclear future.

UE Music Library does not support third party plugins, so even if I wanted to make plugins for it, Logitech doesn't allow me to, they have explicitly removed the plugin support.

[prabbit]

Bummer. I've really enjoyed this plugin, and even more so since iPeng put lyrics on the third swipe screen. Thanks for the notification, Erland.

[TheLastMan]

What a shame, and I only recently discovered the plugin as well and was enjoying using it. I can confirm that it no longer works on my system.

That $20k annual fee looks monstrous, who are they expecting will pay for it? Software and hardware companies? Streaming services?

I think this is the way a lot of the internet is going to go. Things that are free or cheap today will become paid for and expensive in the future as ultimately all this work needs to be paid for, and the only revenue streams are either paying directly or advertising. Volunteers such as you who are prepared to put so much of their time and effort in for free can only do so much. In the end people need to earn a living!

My main worry is the sustainability of the Spotify / Napster / Rhapsody model. I cannot see how "all-you-can-eat" music for £10 / $10 a month will work in the long term.

[erland]

That $20k annual fee looks monstrous, who are they expecting will pay for it? Software and hardware companies? Streaming services?

Big companies selling their products/services to the masses, for these $20 000/year is not a big issue.
As usual the fees are likely dictated by the music industry, musixmatch is just the company in the middle, so I don't think we should blame musixmatch.

My main worry is the sustainability of the Spotify / Napster / Rhapsody model. I cannot see how "all-you-can-eat" music for £10 / $10 a month will work in the long term.

I know several people who never spent $10/months on music and now spend $10/month on Spotify without thinking much about it. So to me the streaming model makes perfect sense, but it probably needs to be combined with normal purchases because the streaming services always tend to miss some of the music you like to listen to.

[Nocko!]

I don't understand anything about programming and APIs and so on but I am very thankful to Erland for his Plugin. I used it for two years (with iPeng) and it made my music experience perfect. We should fight for it !
If you, Erland, need financial support for your work (not to buy the rights for using lyrics), you should feel free to make SongLyrics commercial. I had already donated a small amount (or two ?) and would do it again. For maintenance I would also pay a regular fee.

Could this

http://blog.programmableweb.com/2008...rics-via-code/

be a source to integrate into your plugin ?

Many thanks,
Nocko!