How to View Lyrics on Apple Music: Enable the Sing Along Feature

On 6/30/2015, Apple launched Apple Music, and a Spotify alternative was born. A huge highlight of the launch was that it was available in more than 100 countries. This contrasted with Spotify, which was available mostly in the countries that were more developed. 

At launch, there were 30 million songs in its catalog. The app could be on compatible iPads, iPhones, iPods, Windows PCs and Macs. Support for Android and Apple TV came close to the end of 2015.  

Many Apple Music users have expressed an interest in finding out how they can view lyrics as they discover more and more new songs through the service.

Does Apple Music have a karaoke feature?

Yes. It is called Apple Music Sing, a feature that shows the song’s lyrics and even controls the original song singer’s voice volume so your voice stands out when singing along to your favorite song. You will learn more about Apple Music Sing later in this article.

How to See Lyrics on Apple Music

Before we dive into how to see the lyrics of your favorite songs on Apple Music, it’s important to discuss and understand the differences in how Apple Music displays music lyrics.

Apple Music has two types of lyrics modes – full lyrics and time-synced. You can access both of these across multiple platforms and devices.

Live Lyrics & Full Lyrics – What is the Difference? 

Live lyrics, also called time-sync lyrics, mean that you can easily follow along with a song you are listening to in real-time with visual clues. This can be accessed directly from your playback screen. Along with viewing the lyrics in real-time, you can choose a verse to skip to your favorite part.

Full lyrics means that you can see all of a song’s verses on one page. It looks like what you would see in Google if you looked up a song’s lyrics. 

These two kinds of lyrics have different uses. For example, when you want to sing with the song, Live lyrics are the better choice. If you simply want to learn a song’s lyrics, Full Lyrics is the one to choose.

Even though these options are both offered by Apple Music to the users, you should know that they aren’t available everywhere. It’s possible that you will only be able to access full lyrics when it comes to some songs. There also may be songs that don’t have any lyrics whatsoever. This is common with certain regional songs. 

Before we start on how to see lyrics on Apple Music, it’s important to know that you’ll need an active subscription to Apple Music.

How to View Lyrics in Apple Music on Your Mobile Device

No matter if you’re using an Android or an iOS device, you can use both full and time-synced lyrics across multiple devices such as Android phones, iPhones, iPod touch, or iPads.

How to See Time-Synced Lyrics on Mobile Devices

1. 1. On your device, open the Apple Music App.
2. 2. Choose & Stream a tune.
3. 3. Tap on the play bar at the screen’s bottom.
4. 4. In Play View, see & tap on the Lyrics button. This is found in the screen’s lower left-hand corner. This will turn available time-synced lyrics off or on.

How to See Full Lyrics on Mobile Devices

Along with the time-synced lyrics, there are also full lyrics. With a subscription, you’re able to see the full lyrics on your mobile device.

1. 1. Open your Apple Music app
2. 2. Tap & hold your chosen song from the catalog.
3. 3. View the song.
4. 4. Click on the three dots at the upper right next to the song as shown above.
5. 5. Choose View Credits.
6. 6. Choose View Lyrics.
7. 7. The full lyrics will be shown on the next screen.

How to See Lyrics on Mac

If you’d rather stream music and view the lyrics on your computer, this can be done. However, it’s different based on if you have a PC or Mac.

Mac – View Time Synced Lyrics on Apple Music

If you’re a Mac user, viewing lyrics is much like seeing them on your mobile device since a Mac supports the Apple Music app natively as well.

1. 1. On your table (desktop), open the Apple Music app.
2. 2. Stream your chosen song from the catalog.
3. 3. View & tap the song at the screen’s bottom.
4. 4. To turn on time-synced lyrics, tap on the lyrics icon to view the verses.

To learn more about the Apple Music Music Mini Player on Mac check this page. 

To view lyrics in full screen, follow the two steps below. 

1. 1. Go to the app’s menu bar
2. 2. You can then choose the small album art at the top or click on Window> Full Screen Player on your menu bar. 
3. 3. Using the keyboard command ⌘ + Shift ⇧ + F also will open the full-screen interface.

Mac – See Full Song Lyrics on Apple Music

1. 1. Open the app.
2. 2. Click on the song to view the shortcut menu. 
3. 3. From this menu, select Get Info.
4. 4. Click on the Lyrics tab to get the song’s full lyrics.

How to View Apple Music Lyrics on PC

It’s important to note that there isn’t an Apple Music app for your Windows PC. Instead, you can use iTunes to access the Apple Music library and see the song’s lyrics, in case you have an Apple Music subscription. The difference is that the types of lyrics available might just be full lyrics whereas the app offers full and time-synced lyrics on the Mac.

Windows – View Full Lyrics using iTunes

1. 1. Open iTunes on your PC
2. 2. At the top left portion of your screen, there is a pop-up menu. Select Music and click on Library.
3. 3. Begin streaming a song from the catalog
4. 4. Go to the menu at the top right next to the player and click the button that says Up Next (a small bullet list icon). 
5. 5. Then click on lyrics. This will enter the lyrics of your song.
6. 6. If you see the button Resume, click it.

How to View Lyrics Using Your Apple TV

With the addition of Apple TV to the Apple family of products, many users want to be able to view the lyrics to their favorite songs on their Apple TV as well. The good news is that this is possible as long as you have either an Apple TV HD or 4K. 

1. 1. Open the Apple Music App 
2. 2. Play your chosen song from the catalog
3. 3. Press on the Back/Menu button on your remote
4. 4. Choose the option that says Lyrics (this is a speech button). That will be in your screen’s top-right corner.

Apple Music Sing – Taking Apple Music a Step Further

Now that you know where to find the lyrics, whether they are full lyrics or time-synced, let’s have some fun with them with Apple Music Sing. 

What is Apple Music Sing?

Apple Music Sing is a new feature that will allow Apple Music subscribers to sing along to their favorite songs with adjustable vocals and real-time lyrics. It’s like having your own little karaoke machine inside the Apple Music app. Isn’t that cool?

Unfortunately, not all devices support Apple Music Sing. Below is a list of the supported devices.

• • iPhone 11 & later
• • 3^rd Generation iPhone SE
• • iPad Pro 11”
• • 4^th Generation & Later iPad Air
• • 6^th Generation iPad Mini 
• • 9^th Generation & later iPad
• • 3^rd Generation Apple TV 4K

Now that we know where you can use Apple Music Sing feature to sing along with the lyrics of your favorite songs, let’s look at how to get the party started! 

Apple Music Sing along lyrics feature on iPad/iPhone 

• • Open App.
• • Open the Search option.
• • Beneath the section called Browse Categories, find and then tap Sing.

• • Now you’ll be able to access the karaoke function called Apple Music Sing & as well as the songs with the function.
• • Choose the song you want to sing with. You can choose from many options, including by decade.

• • Tap on the playing song with the lyrics so you can sing along.

• • Tap the button that says Mic.
• • Drag your slider down or up to adjust vocals.

Apple Music Sing along lyrics feature on Apple TV

What if you have some friends over and want to have a karaoke party? If you have an Apple TV, you can turn your Apple TV into your karaoke machine, using the following steps. 

1. 1. Open App
2. 2. Search for a song
3. 3. Beneath the section called Browse Categories, find and then tap Sing
4. 4 Now you’ll be able to access the function called Apple Music Sing & as well as the songs with the function.
5. 5. Choose the song you want to sing with
6. 6. Tap on the playing song.
7. 7. Tap the button that says Mic.
8. 8. Drag your slider down or up to adjust vocals.

How do I share Lyrics with Another Person?

Now that you know how to view lyrics on Apple Music, we’re also going to show you how to share the lyrics with anyone.

What if you’ve been talking to a friend about the lyrics of a song, but you forgot the exact words? Fast forward a few days, and you have finally found them on Apple Music, and now you want to show it to that friend by sharing the lyrics. The good news is we’re going to show you how to share lyrics on Apple Music. Here are the steps to take.

• • Tap on Music.
• • Find the song for which you want to share the lyrics.
• • Tap on the three dots that are beside the name of the song.

• • Tap on Share Lyrics.

• • Tap on the line that you want to share.

• • View the other lines by scrolling down.
• • Choose the way that you share the line – your iPhone will display the most recently used contacts and other options to share the lyrics.

• • Tap on Send like you’re sending them a message.

How can I see Song Information in Apple Music?

While you are viewing lyrics, you also can learn more about the song to which you’re listening, including the name of the album and other details. This is where you should look.

1. 1. Tap on Music
2. 2. Find a song you want to find out more about 
3. 3. Play the song 
4. 4. Swipe up where the song’s listed in Music
5. 5. The name of the album is found in between the song’s playback line and the title of the song.

You also can find out the quality of the song and if lossless quality is offered when you look for its description beneath its playback line.

Lyrics aren’t Working in Apple Music – What do I do? 

One main reason that the lyrics won’t display is that you may have enabled restrictions in content in your settings. You also can’t view lyrics without a subscription to Apple Music.

Here are the steps to fix it if it’s due to settings.

1. 1. Tap on Settings
2. 2. Tap on Screen Time
3. 3. Tap on Content & Privacy Restrictions
4. 4. Set this to Off.

Well, that concludes our guide to viewing lyrics in Apple Music and accessing Apple Music Sing for some karaoke experience in the app. We hope that you enjoyed it and that you will share our guide with your friends. Please feel free to check out our other guides and articles about Apple Music.

If you are looking for a way to transfer and manage all of your playlists conveniently and quickly, TuneMyMusic is your best option. If you are new to Apple Music, TuneMyMusic is a convenient tool that helps you bring your whole music collection to Apple Music from any other music streaming service. This saves you a lot of time and allows you to enjoy listening to your music without switching back and forth. If you enjoyed this guide, we also suggest that you check out our other blogs, such as this handy guide about the price of Apple Music and the different options. And for Spotify users, we have a similar guide on how to view lyrics on Spotify. These and many other helpful insightful articles can be found in our blog. As was already mentioned, we will be adding many more guides soon, so stay tuned!