Lyrics. Kind of a big deal, right? They’re one of those things that can make you feel some of the greatest moments of your life through music. Think about it. How many artists do you feel connected to just because they said something in a lyric that made you go, “Damn, I really felt that”?

The Zero-Lyrics Problem

But here’s the funny thing. Many musicians forget to post their lyrics online. Or worse, a fan listens to your vocals, where you’re enunciating like you’ve got a mouth full of M&Ms and a double cup in hand, and they try to guess what you said. Next thing you know, the whole world thinks you’re singing about how “bad you wanna crash your jeep” when you were really saying you “I really ride for Lil Peep.”

And we do not want that. Suddenly, your family is doing wellness checks, and your ex-the one you have been dodging—is texting “u ok?”

All of this could have been avoided if your lyrics were just online. On Instagram, Spotify, Google, and Apple Music. Everywhere. By the end of this newsletter, you will know exactly how to get your lyrics all over the internet with the ones you actually wrote. 

The Solution

So one of the silliest things that makes a musician feel like they really are a professional is when someone shares their song on Instagram and their lyrics pop up, and they’re like, “Hey, I wrote that, and that fan shared it.” And I don’t want to belittle it, since just a decade ago there wasn’t much like this and it’s pretty damn cool.

But so many of you find this to be special because you can’t figure out how to get your lyrics to show up on Spotify, Apple Music, Instagram, Amazon Music, Google, and a bunch more.

Which is why I’m so excited to talk about the sponsor of this video, Musixmatch Pro, an all-in-one solution for getting the most out of your lyrics: from curation to distribution to enhancing your audience’s listening experience.

The Importance of Lyrics

But some of you don’t understand why having your lyrics on these apps is a big deal. After all, when your lyrics are just “she was hopping in the rari” over and over because you injured your brain huffing that dentist juice, you might not get the power of lyrics and fans actually knowing them.

First off, if you’ve never heard fans yelling your lyrics back at you on stage, let’s say, it’s a hell of a drug. Maybe even more of a high than dentist juice. But ugh… I wouldn’t know.

There’s also the thrill of those lyrics connecting with someone else, and they write to you about their importance. Or maybe something even crazier: they get them tattooed on themselves — I mean, what kind of freak would do that? Oh yeah, that’s right. My body is covered in lyrics by The 1975, Porter Robinson, Sophie, Charli XCX, Justice, Momma, and some nerdy line from a documentary. So I guess a freak like me.

But none of that would’ve happened if I hadn’t bonded with what they were saying and gotten so emotionally attached that I wanted those words on my body forever.

MusixMatch is the Answer

But how do fans even know what the lyrics are now that CDs are gone and vinyl is mainly bought by a small group of fans who hang it on their wall? Well, the answer is Musixmatch, for the most part. Fans read lyrics while they listen to Spotify and Apple Music, or they see them as they scroll.

By now, most fans know they can click that mic button on Spotify, turn on captions on YouTube, or just Google the lyrics, and Musixmatch powers all of those.

Google and Search SEO

However, there are more utilitarian reasons for this, too. Let’s say a fan hears your song as it’s going viral on TikTok or Reels. But the problem is, your song is called “Bug Chasing the Woke Mind Virus,” and the lyrics are just “I can’t put down the cup” six times in a row since you have such a way with words. Well, a fan isn’t going to have the easiest time finding that, since you named your song something completely unrelated to the viral hook.

But if your lyrics have been uploaded to Musixmatch, that’s how they show up on Google. You know how, at the end of most lyric searches, it says “Source: Musixmatch”? That’s because they’re the go-to source for this on Google.

And this matters not just for viral songs. When a fan really feels a song, they Google it. A lot. Even when the lyrics are sung with enunciation that would make Emily Haines of Metric jealous, these searches can be some of the most common ways fans find artists, even when the lyrics are as simple as some of the songs I’m joking about in this newsletter. Fans want to read along and really take them in.

Either You Do It Right or Someone Else Does It Wrong

There’s a reason lyric videos keep getting more popular every year. Fans want ways to go deeper with artists. Lyrics are one of the most meaningful ways to do that. They want to feel closer to you, understand you better, and talk about what your songs mean with their friends.

And when you decide to be lazy and not upload your lyrics to Musixmatch, you’re cutting fans off from that experience. That’s pretty rude if you ask me, especially considering how easy this is to do.

One of the worst parts of this all can be if your song does well and you don’t sync your lyrics on Musixmatch, is some fan may do it and do a terrible job getting your masterpiece poetry of some lyric like “In December, drinking horchata I’d look psychotic in a balaclava” because you’re an insufferable nerd and that fan messes up the timing and makes it say “In December drinking horse chowdah I’d look brolic eating Baklava.”

Well, now your life’s work is ruined, you look dumb to fans, and you’re now wondering why everyone thinks you’re so weird.

This is exactly why you need to do this yourself with Musixmatch Pro so that grandma doesn’t ask you why your lyric that sang “On God my Grammy shines like the best sheen” gets uploaded as “On God my Grammy shy like Jeffy Epstein.”

Look, it could happen. And just imagine what Grammy is going to give you on Xmas after she went to share your song on Instagram and saw those lyrics.

Why MusixMatch Pro?

Whether you want fans to be able to find your song as it goes viral, to bond with your lyrics that came from the darkest place in your soul, get acknowledged as the voice of your generation, have people yelling your lyrics back, or just feel understood by other artists who think you write some “real bars”: the only way this happens these days is if you get them across the internet. And Musixmatch is the go-to place to do that, since no one compares it to being the definitive resource for lyrics online.

But there’s so much more to their platform that we’ll talk about next. 

How To

But how do you do all of this? 

Create an account on Musixmatch, and next, we need to verify your artist profile to confirm it's really you and not someone insulting your grandma. Yes, they manually verify this for every artist. After that, all you need to do is use their interface to sync your lyrics and ensure they are accurate. From the moment your lyrics are saved on the platform, they are sent and distributed directly to the DSPs and other partners.

Now, I do want to say, you can only add your lyrics once the songs are published on the DSPs. So you’ll need to add the lyrics after your song is uploaded. This is often why you go listen to your favorite artist’s new song, go to read the lyrics, and they aren’t there. But a few weeks later, suddenly they are.

This isn’t because the lyric fairy left them under Instagram’s pillow or some cool fan took a swing. This is just how the world works.

Other Handy Features

And with Musixmatch Pro, there are even more cool features:

You can use their AI synchronization to make it easy for your lyrics to sync up and save you work, which is especially helpful for those of you with huge catalogs. They can also do transcription of lyrics, and you can fix what gets wrong. There’s even the possibility of outsourcing the curation to their specialists.

You can also create Spotify Canvases or make lyric videos with already time-synced lyrics, in short formats perfect for Reels or social media, which can even turn into full-length lyric videos for YouTube. They even have the option to create video backgrounds with AI, based on your song’s meaning or your album cover.

And for those of you who run management companies or labels, they have Manager Plans where you can collaborate with your team and access bulk features like bulk lyrics upload on demand.

Translations

Now one of the coolest things to is a lot of you end up having fans who speak other languages and when you have that you know that fans actually often use lyrics to learn other languages and love to see the lyrics translated since its way more fun to learn to your favorite song rather than from some AI owl nerd from some app like Quadralingo or whatever.

Musixmatch can enable translations of your lyrics, and some songs end up available in over 120 languages.

Pricing

And I know a lot of you are thinking, "Okay, Jesse, there’s got to be a catch. How much does this cost?"

I have great news, it’s even cheaper for my readers! You can get 15% off Musixmatch Pro by using code Jesse15 at this link.

They have a free plan for single artists who need the basics. Now, it is quite slow to get verified on this plan since it can take up to 30 days because they have to check all the requests manually.

Then it’s $19 for an entire year for those who need fast-track service, like if you’re going viral and need your song to start showing up in search ASAP, or if you want to use the AI sync or edit lyrics with featured artists on the track.

Their Grow plan is $72 a year and has everything in that plan, plus you can create those lyric videos I talked about before and remove the watermark.

And with the Plus plan, for $178 a year, you get up to three artists and access to get your lyrics on YouTube and create lyric videos with translations. That’s pretty sick.

Thanks for reading.