Handling the Lyrics tag

What is Lyrics tag?

Lyrics3 Tag is a chunk of data which begins with “LYRICSBEGIN”, ends with “LYRICSEND” and has the lyrics between these keywords. This data block is then saved in the audio file between the audio and the ID3 tag. If no ID3 tag is present one must be attached.

Note
For more information, please visit: http://id3.org/Lyrics3

Reading a Lyrics tag

The GroupDocs.Metadata API allows reading the Lyrics3 tag in an MP3 file.

  1. Load an MP3 file
  2. Extract the root metadata package
  3. Get the Lyrics tag by using the MP3RootPackage.getLyrics3V2method
  4. If the Lyrics tag is not null then check for all of its properties

The following code snippet reads the Lyrics tag from an MP3 file.

advanced_usage.managing_metadata_for_specific_formats.audio.mp3.MP3ReadLyricsTag

try (Metadata metadata = new Metadata(Constants.MP3WithLyrics)) {
	MP3RootPackage root = metadata.getRootPackageGeneric();
	if (root.getLyrics3V2() != null) {
		System.out.println(root.getLyrics3V2().getLyrics());
		System.out.println(root.getLyrics3V2().getAlbum());
		System.out.println(root.getLyrics3V2().getArtist());
		System.out.println(root.getLyrics3V2().getTrack());

		// ...
		// Alternatively, you can loop through a full list of tag fields
		for (LyricsField field : root.getLyrics3V2().toList()) {
			System.out.println(String.format("%s = %s", field.getID(), field.getData()));
		}
	}
}

Updating a Lyrics tag

The GroupDocs.Metadata API supports updating the Lyrics tag in an MP3 audio file.

The following are the steps to update the Lyrics tag in an MP3 file.

  1. Load an MP3 file
  2. Extract the root metadata package
  3. Create the Lyrics tag if it’s missing
  4. Update Lyrics fields using the MP3RootPackage.getLyrics3V2method
  5. Save the changes

The following code snippet shows how to update the Lyrics tag in an MP3 file.

advanced_usage.managing_metadata_for_specific_formats.audio.mp3.MP3UpdateLyricsTag

try (Metadata metadata = new Metadata(Constants.MP3WithLyrics)) {
	MP3RootPackage root = metadata.getRootPackageGeneric();
	if (root.getLyrics3V2() == null) {
		root.setLyrics3V2(new LyricsTag());
	}
	root.getLyrics3V2().setLyrics("[00:01]Test lyrics");
	root.getLyrics3V2().setArtist("test artist");
	root.getLyrics3V2().setAlbum("test album");
	root.getLyrics3V2().setTrack("test track");

	// You can add a fully custom field to the tag
	root.getLyrics3V2().set(new LyricsField("ABC", "custom value"));

	// ...

	metadata.save(Constants.OutputMp3);
}

Removing a Lyrics tag

To remove the Lyrics tag from an MP3 audio just pass null to the MP3RootPackage.setLyrics3V2 method. The code sample below shows how to remove the Lyrics tag from an MP3 file.

advanced_usage.managing_metadata_for_specific_formats.audio.mp3.MP3RemoveLyricsTag

try (Metadata metadata = new Metadata(Constants.MP3WithLyrics)) {
	MP3RootPackage root = metadata.getRootPackageGeneric();
	root.setLyrics3V2(null);
	metadata.save(Constants.OutputMp3);
}

More resources

GitHub examples

You may easily run the code above and see the feature in action in our GitHub examples:

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