ByTune shows lyrics that move with the song: word by word when a provider supplies word timing, line by line when it doesn't, for streamed tracks and your own files alike. Fourteen lyric sources are checked per song, and the timing is yours to nudge.
ByTune partly exists because I kept alt-tabbing to a browser tab just to read the next line. A player that already knows the song should simply show it, timed.
What synced lyrics actually mean
Most desktop lyric support stops at line timing: the whole line lights up, roughly on cue. Word timing is finer. Every word carries its own timestamp, so the line fills in as it is sung, karaoke-style. ByTune prefers word timing, falls back to line timing, and tells you which one you are getting. Instrumental gaps get a quiet pulse instead of dead air.
How to see lyrics for any track
- Play a track, streamed or local.
- Press L, or open the Now Playing view.
- If the timing drifts, nudge the offset for that track until the words land. ByTune remembers the correction.
- Click any line to jump the player straight there.
Where the lyrics come from
No single lyrics provider covers a whole library, so ByTune races fourteen sources in parallel and takes the best timing it can find. LRCLIB and Musixmatch carry word- and line-synced files for most catalog music. Megalobiz, KuGou and a dozen others fill the gaps. Scraped plain text is the last resort. The winning source is always credited at the bottom of the lyrics view, and if one provider goes down, the race just picks another.
Lyrics for streaming tracks and your files, together
Streaming tracks get lyrics because they are in the catalog. Your local files get them because ByTune matches by tags and queries the same sources, so the FLAC folder you ripped years ago gets the same word-synced treatment as today's release. Both kinds live in one library; here is how ByTune works as a YouTube Music desktop app. Nothing here needs an account, a subscription or an extension; and if you are comparing players, ByTune also works as a free, open-source Spotify alternative.
How other players handle lyrics
- Musixmatch's desktop app shows synced lyrics but locks the full feature set behind a subscription.
- MusicBee can display synced lyrics once you supply .lrc files yourself.
- The official YouTube Music web player has a lyrics tab, often not timed at all.
- ByTune bundles the whole pipeline: fourteen providers, word timing, offset control, source credits. Free, because the player is free.
ByTune-Setup.exe · about 112 MB · Windows 10/11 · no subscription, no ads
Fair questions
Does ByTune show synced lyrics?
Yes: word-synced when a provider has word timing, line-synced otherwise, with the source credited at the bottom of the lyrics view for every track.
Which lyric providers does ByTune use?
Fourteen sources, raced in parallel per track. LRCLIB and Musixmatch do much of the heavy lifting; Megalobiz, KuGou and others fill the gaps; plain text is the last resort.
Can I fix lyric timing?
Yes. Every track has an offset control. Nudge it until the words land, and ByTune remembers the correction for that song.
Do lyrics work for local files?
Yes. ByTune matches your files by their tags and checks the same providers it uses for streamed tracks.
Curious what it looks like in motion? Watch the lyrics demo on the homepage.