Lyrimuse
Desktop lyrics apps for macOS in 2026:
Lyrimuse vs LyricsX vs Lyric Fever
Disclosure: this page is maintained by the author of Lyrimuse, so read it with that in mind. Every factual claim was checked against each project's own public repository and README on 2026-09-05; "—" means a feature is not advertised in that project's own materials as of that date, not necessarily that it's absent. Corrections welcome — open an issue.
Is LyricsX still maintained?
Not actively: LyricsX's last release was v1.6.3 in April 2022, though the repository still receives an occasional commit. That's the question that brings most people to this page, so here is a factual, current comparison of the actively maintained open-source options:
- Lyric Fever (MIT) — Spotify + Apple Music lyrics, macOS 15+. Describes itself as a "spiritual successor to LyricsX".
- Lyrimuse (GPL-3.0, this project) — word-synced lyrics for Apple Music, Spotify and the Chinese players (QQ Music, NetEase Cloud Music, Kugou), plus YouTube Music / Spotify Web in any browser; 8 lyric sources checked automatically with every candidate scored so the best match wins; translation, pinyin / Cantonese Jyutping / furigana; Last.fm & ListenBrainz scrobbling with local stats. macOS 14+, Apple Silicon and Intel.
What about OSD Lyrics? It's a Linux desktop-lyrics app, not a macOS one — it shows up in "LyricsX alternative" lists but won't run on a Mac.
Side-by-side (facts checked 2026-09-05)
| Lyrimuse | LyricsX | Lyric Fever | |
|---|---|---|---|
| License · price | GPL-3.0 · free | MPL-2.0 · free | MIT · free |
| Latest release | v1.5.0 (Sep 2026) | v1.6.3 (Apr 2022) | v3.3 (Nov 2025) |
| Minimum macOS | 14 (Sonoma) | 10.11 | 15 (Sequoia) |
| Players | Apple Music, Spotify, QQ Music, NetEase Cloud Music, Kugou — any combination | Apple Music, Spotify, Vox, Audirvana, Swinsian | Spotify, Apple Music |
| Web players in a browser | YouTube Music & Spotify Web, synced to the page's own progress | — | — |
| Lyric sources | 8: NetEase, QQ Music, Kugou, Kuwo, Musixmatch, LRCLIB, LyricFind, AMLL | multiple, via its LyricsKit library | 3: Spotify, LRCLIB, NetEase |
| Match selection | every candidate from every source scored on one scale (title / artist / album / duration fit + quality signals); per-track decision panel; manual picks locked | — | — |
| Word-by-word sync | yes, across sources (incl. the hand-curated AMLL database) | via LRCX word time tags, when the source provides them | — |
| Translation | source community translation, else on-device Apple translation (18 languages) with online fallback | displays source-provided translations | Apple on-device translation |
| Romanization | per-line pinyin, Cantonese Jyutping, Japanese furigana | — | — |
| Simplified ⇄ Traditional Chinese | yes, independent of UI language | yes | — |
| Duet / multi-singer splitting | yes, when the source marks parts | — | — |
| Scrobbling & stats | Last.fm + ListenBrainz, backfill, local history, charts, heatmap | — | — |
| Display surfaces | floating overlay, Dynamic-Island capsule, menu bar, full lyrics window | desktop + menu bar | menu bar, fullscreen, karaoke popup |
| UI languages | English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese | multiple (Crowdin) | English, Simplified Chinese |
Where Lyrimuse fits
Lyrimuse is built for listeners the other two don't fully cover: you play music through QQ Music, NetEase Cloud Music or Kugou; you play YouTube Music or Spotify in a browser and still want desktop lyrics synced to the page's own progress; you want Cantonese Jyutping or Japanese furigana; or you want Last.fm / ListenBrainz scrobbling and listening stats in the same app that shows your lyrics.
Matching is also score-driven rather than first-hit: every candidate from every source is ranked on title / artist / album / duration fit plus quality signals such as word-level timing, each track's decision is shown with per-candidate scores, and a manually picked lyric is locked and never overridden.
brew tap yudaotor/lyrimuse && brew install --cask lyrimuse