How should I paste my lyrics?

Paste your lyrics with one sung line per line, exactly as they’re sung, and lyrik tidies up section tags, repeats and ad-libs for you.

If you do not have the words written out, choose Auto-detect lyrics instead and check them in Sync. Read about detection.

How to paste them

1. Choose your track, then select Paste lyrics if the choice is shown.
2. Paste or type into Lyrics, with one sung line per line. Press Enter for a new line.
3. Read the note under the box, which shows what lyrik will tidy.
4. Check Language if needed, then check the cost and press Sync my lyrics.
5. Keep the page open until the upload finishes.

What a good paste looks like

[Verse 1]
Paper boats along the gutter
Racing to the drain

[Chorus]
Count the buses going by
Count them till you're home

• One line per sung line. Split long lines where the singer breathes or starts a new phrase.
• Write every repeat the singer sings, or mark it. Missing repeats are the biggest cause of bad sync, and lines can’t be added after upload. See How do I mark choruses, verses and repeats?
• Square-bracket tags like '[Chorus]' and markers like 'x2' are fine. The note under the box says it: '[Chorus] tags and “x2” are fine. We tidy them up.'
• Round brackets mark ad-libs. See How do I mark ad-libs and backing vocals, and can I hide them?

What the tidy-up removes for you

If you copy lyrics from a lyrics website or a document, lyrik removes:

• A 'Song Title Lyrics' heading on the first lines.
• Website extras such as 'Embed', 'You might also like' and the list after it, 'N Contributors', 'Translations', 'See … Live' and ticket lines.
• The hidden code from a pasted rich-text (.rtf) file.
• Invisible characters and non-breaking spaces.

It keeps curly apostrophes, and keeps accented letters as one character.

Good to know

• Paste the words as they are sung, including repeats.
• Up to 20,000 characters. This is checked after the upload.
• The line count on the Sync screen ('All N lines') can be different from the count here. Repeats are written out in full, so the number usually goes up. Ad-lib lines and markers like '(x2)' aren’t counted there. Nothing is lost.
• Keep a copy of your lyrics. Your saved project link lets you return to setup, but a reload before upload may mean choosing the audio file again.

If something goes wrong

• 'Paste your lyrics.' The lyrics box was empty when you uploaded. Go back and paste them.
• 'Those lyrics are too long (20,000 characters at most).' Remove anything that isn’t sung, such as notes or credits.
• Sync has the wrong lines or misses a repeat. You can’t add lines after upload. Start a new video with the same file and paste the lyrics again with every repeat. If it’s the very same file, syncing it again can be free. See Starting another project with the same audio
• My answers vanished. Open your saved project link and choose the audio file again if asked. Keep a copy of your lyrics in case a recent change did not save.

Hidden extras

• There is a copy-and-paste template with every rule in it: Is there a lyrics template I can copy?