DesktopLyrics History:


2.7.1 (30 Nov 2020):

• Provide full native support for 'Apple Silicon'


2.7.0 (10 Oct 2019):

• IMPORTANT: The minimum system requirements have been raised to macOS 10.15

• Added full compatibility with macOS 'Catalina' 10.15 and the new Music app

• Added support for 'Dark Mode'

• DesktopLyrics is now free of charge


2.6.16 (23 Jul 2018):

• Fix 'Set Lyrics' feature not setting the lyrics permanently since v2.6.13

• Fix 'Network Lyrics' only working for songs with album-art since v2.6.8


2.6.15 (24 Apr 2018):

• Fix problem with cut-off lyrics when setting horizontal text alignment to 'right'


2.6.14 (2 Apr 2018):

• The 'Network Lyrics' feature is now free, and not an in-app purchase

• Automatically detect incompatibility with 'LiveDesktop' and 'EarthDesk' apps

• Fix lyrics-tooltip position when using 'Bartender'

• Fix problem where lyrics-tooltip may not be positioned completely correctly


2.6.13 (13 Mar 2018):

• Fixed problem where next/previous page buttons can not be clicked

• Fixed rare problems when lyrics are cut onto a very large number of pages


2.6.12 (19 May 2017):

• IMPORTANT: The minimum system requirements have been raised to macOS 10.10

• Fixed possible problem with in-app purchases

• Added complete German localization

• Translated main menu into 34 languages


2.6.11 (2 May 2016):

• Fixed problem with 'network lyrics' displaying other Mac's lyrics


2.6.10 (1 Mar 2016):

• Added experimental support for the music player 'Swinsian'

• Added retina version of menubar icon


2.6.9 (16 Dec 2015):

• Allow remembering lyrics for tracks where iTunes does not allow this (streamed music)

• Add option to add 'Play Count' and 'Last Played' to the displayed song-info

• Cache lyrics transformation (Python) results for increased performance

• Fix problem where album cover/artwork would be 'behind' the lyrics background


2.6.8 (16 Oct 2015):

• Make recording of page-turns emit a helpful on-screen user-notification

• Fix recording of page-turns with song that have been paused or fast-forwarded

• Fixed crash when moving DesktopLyrics while it is running

• Updated documentation for correctness of Terminal-codes


2.6.7 (14 May 2015):

• Fixed problem where page change buttons could not be clicked anymore

• Fixed display of tooltip on Macs with 'Retina' screen

• Improvements to the welcome assistant

• Include our 'privacy policy'


2.6.6 (21 Jan 2015):

• Fixed problem with superfluous log messages

• Expanded ReadMe and FAQ

• Detect problematic configuration with DesktopLyrics being in the 'Login Items'

• Provided hidden option to refresh cover for every song and not for every album:
defaults write com.corecode.DesktopLyrics HiddenOptionAlwaysUpdateCover -bool true


2.6.5 (20 Oct 2014):

• Added support for 'Dark Mode' in Mac OS X 10.10 'Yosemite'

• Improved performance and memory usage

• Added possibility to close the "set lyrics" window

• Fixed rare problem where DesktopLyrics could freeze and eat up much memory

• Fixed problem where cover would not appear in presentation mode

• Added more text transformation options when setting new lyrics

• Provided hidden option to start DesktopLyrics in 'hidden' mode:
defaults write com.corecode.DesktopLyrics HiddenOptionStartHidden -bool true


2.6.2 (26 Aug 2014):

• Fixed problem where the presentation mode popup would be disabled

• Made presentation-mode settings apply immediately if mode is currently enabled

• Made it obvious that 'presentation mode' needs to be activated to be in effect

• Fixed problem where the lyrics in the tooltip would be editable

• Made tooltip invokable with shortcut when displaying icon in dock and not in the menubar

• Expanded documentation with respect to viewing lyrics when covered by other windows


2.6.1 (30 Apr 2014):

• Fixed problem where some fonts could prevent the main window showing


2.6.0 (7 Apr 2014):

• Added HotKey combination to toggle the tooltip

• Added options to configure font smoothing&anti-aliasing

• Added option to make the presentation mode hide all apps

• Show font names in the preferences in their respective fonts

• Prettified tooltip on the menu-bar item (showing the lyrics)

• Added helpful information to prevent mis-configuration

• Improved handling for tracks from shared libraries

• Fixed regression with tooltips not showing immediately

• Fixed problem with set-lyrics hot-key not showing up

• Allow positioning of album art on different display


2.5.5 (16 Jan 2014):

• Added option to split lyrics non-evenly across multiple pages

• Improved stability


2.5.1 (4 Dec 2013):

• Added option for showing the "action-button" when not displaying in Dock or Menubar

• Fixed "action-button" being available even when no lyrics are displayed

• Fixed placement of the page-choose-buttons when not displaying song-info

• Fixed problems when the 'Arial' font is not available


2.5.0 (8 Nov 2013):

• NETWORK LYRICS: the ability to display the lyrics of songs playing on a Mac
on another Mac, iPhone or iPad is now available as an additional in-app purchase

• LYRICS FILTERING: lyrics can now be transformed by optional Python scripts

• IMPORTANT: The minimum system requirements have been raised to Mac OS X 10.7

• Lyrics position on the screen can now be easily defined with presets or by mouse-dragging

• Show lyrics also in a tooltip when hovering the mouse over the Menubar icon

• Added option to have images / patterns as background for the lyrics or presentation mode

• Added HotKey combination to toggle the presentation mode

• Added support for showing song information from internet radio stations

• Added option to transform lyrics (lowercase, etc) when setting new lyrics

• Added FAQ entry about incompatibility with BitPerfect

• Removed restrictions on minimum font size

• Fixed problem when using DesktopLyrics to set the lyrics for a track

• Improved placement of the page-choose-buttons

• Improvements when not displaying a Dock or Menubar icon

• Prevent entry of invalid numeric values

• Fixed problem where preference changes would not be picked up


2.2.0 (12 Apr 2013):

• IMPORTANT: The minimum system requirements have been raised to Mac OS X 10.6.8

• Add option to control whether to display lyrics on all spaces or just on a single one

• Add "Presentation Mode" to show lyrics while hiding the Desktop

• Usability improvement for hiding the text related to empty lyrics

• Added ability to display the song composer and genre in the song info

• Added smooth animation between album covers

• Added support for line breaks in song info

• Performance improvements

• Warn when the Tryout version is still installed and running in addition to the full version

• Add keyboard shortcut to close the window to change song lyrics

• Fixed placement of the page-choose-buttons

• Automatically record page-turn timecode by holding down shift while clicking 'next page'

• Prevent misconfiguration when changing screen resolution or lyrics screen

• Added options to rate the app on the MacAppStore or on MacUpdate


2.1.0 (05 Nov 2012):

• Added support for showing the song rating

• Added support for searching for song lyrics

• Added support for setting/modifying the song lyrics

• Added support for lyrics sharing with the "Mountain Lion" native sharing options

• Added HotKeys for searching lyrics or setting new lyrics

• Fixed possible crash related to (dis)connecting additional displays

• Fixed ugly black window on launch with the system setting "reopen windows"

• Fixed opening preferences window on launch with the system setting "reopen windows"

• Fixed cosmetic problem related to the Exposé "Show Desktop" function

• Improved usability by preventing setting problematic configurations

• Fixed a problem with the HotKeys


2.0.1 (23 Jul 2012):

• Now works with Mac OS X "Mountain Lion" 10.8

• Displaying lyrics on other monitors now works

• Fixed album cover artwork not displaying under Mac OS X 10.6

• Fixed issue where changing the song info size or content would not work


2.0.0 (11 Jun 2012):

• REDESIGNED: completely overhauled user interface to be more capable and easy to use

• Performance, stability and memory usage improvements

• The displayed lyrics now "flicker" less when changing songs or "pages"

• Added convenience options for sharing the current lyrics by:
* Printing the lyrics
* Copying the lyrics to the clipboard
* Sharing the lyrics via email/twitter/facebook

• DesktopLyrics functions like toggling visibility or lyrics sharing can now be invoked by:
* The Dock menu (if displaying in the Dock)
* The Menubar menu (if displaying in the Menubar)
* The "action-button" embedded between the song title and lyrics

• Added option to display DesktopLyrics in the menubar instead of the Dock

• Added option to display current song artwork (cover) in addition to the lyrics

• Added option to use a different font for the song information than for the lyrics

• Added option to define custom time-codes for lyrics page-switching

• DesktopLyrics can now hide its Dock icon without having to restart itself

• Fixed cases where the lyrics could be smaller than the defined minimum font size

• DesktopLyrics is now "sandboxed" for maximum security

• The system requirements have been raised to Mac OS X 10.6.6 with a 64-bit processor

• DesktopLyrics 2 is now distributed through the Mac App Store


1.3.7 (29 May 2012):

• IMPORTANT: this is the last version of DesktopLyrics 1.x., visit the website to learn how to upgrade to v2.0

• Improved compatibility Mac OS X 10.8. "Mountain Lion"

• Visual improvements for Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" and newer

• Improved stability

• Default to running in 64-bit mode

• Fixed the "hide lyrics" HotKey to last permanently and not only until the next song


1.3.6 (7 Dec 2011):

• IMPORTANT: The minimum system requirements have been raised to Mac OS X 10.6.

• Since defining HotKeys makes these key-combinations unusable in all other apps:

• HotKey controls have been changed to require at least the Command-key (⌘) to be used

• Added a lengthy explanation that chosen key-combinations stop working in all other apps

• Fixed a problem where no lyrics would be displayed on Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion"

• Fixed compatibility with other desktop-displaying apps like EarthDesk on 10.7 "Lion"

• Fixed behavior on Mac OS X 10.6, lyrics would be displayed above folders on the Desktop


1.3.5 (29 Aug 2011):

• Fixed a problem with the page-choose-buttons on Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion"


1.3.4 (29 Jun 2011):

• Fix the placement of the page-choose-buttons when not displaying the song-info

• Expanded the FAQ

• Provided hidden option to disable font anti-aliasing


1.3.3 (27 Feb 2011):

• Improved stability

• Option to configure the lyrics line-spacing

• Fix the placement of the page-choose-buttons for narrow lyric window configurations

• Fix the height of the gap between the lyrics header and the actual lyrics for large font sizes

• Improved localizations


1.3.2 (19 Oct 2010):

• Increase maximum lyrics font size from 30 to 100

• Fixed donation option not to send users to the german paypal website

• Fixed automatic update-check which would not work automatically in some cases

• DesktopLyrics code is now signed with a digital certificate

• Fixed a problem where automatic updates would result in a broken installation, necessitating a re-download


1.3.1 (2 Sep 2010):

• Fix a problem with the automatic page-turning not turning beyond page two

• Handle case when DesktopLyrics is launched from its disk image

• Handle case when DesktopLyrics is moved while active


1.3.0 (24 Jul 2010):

• Hide / Show the lyrics or turn over the lyrics pages with customizable "hot key" combinations

• Option to customize the song-info-header

• Option to automatically turn the pages of multi-page lyrics

• Option to sign up for beta-testing to help development

• Fixed problem that the help menu would not appear

• Live updating of the preference setting of the indenting from the screen edges

• Provide facility for more extensive localization

• Removed broken option to change the current lyrics page with the arrow keys (hotkey functionality replaces this)


1.2.1 (2 Jan 2010):

• Fix a bug where DesktopLyrics would display a dash when iTunes is not running

• Improved stability

• Added link to "Get Lyrical"

• DesktopLyrics automatically restarts itself when turning off visibility in the Dock


1.2.0 (17 Sep 2009):

• IMPORTANT: The minimum system requirements have been raised to Mac OS X 10.5.

• IMPORTANT: Do not directly upgrade from a release older than 1.0.2, or your preferences won't be taken over

• Completely reimplemented the communication with iTunes based on the "ScriptingBridge" for improved performance and reliability

• Added 64-bit support (on Intel), but by defaults starts in 32-bit mode. To change this use the "Get Info" panel in the Finder on SMARTReporter

• Added option to change the current lyrics page with the arrow keys (when DesktopLyrics is the front application)

• Added the specified text shadow to the page index text as well

• Fixed the CrashReport sending facility to only send "real" crashes


1.1.1 (23 Feb 2009):

• IMPORTANT: Users of Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" have to update manually to this release since the update check has been disabled on this platform already

• Fixed multiple issues where the page-choose-buttons would be positioned incorrectly, possibly obscuring the lyrics display

• Fixed possible crash

• Fixed the update-check, which would still check for updates even if disabled (sorry!)

• Fonts unsuitable for lyrics display are filtered-out

• Restrict font minimum and maximum size to 3 - 30 to prevent problems


1.1.0 (28 Dec 2008):

• IMPORTANT: The minimum system requirements have been raised to Mac OS X 10.4.

• IMPORTANT: Users of Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" have to update manually to this release since the update check has been disabled on this platform already

• Added minimum font size:

• Minimum font size prevents lyrics from becoming unreadable small

• Lyrics not fitting in the destination area with the minimum size are are displayed on multiple "pages"

• The currently viewed lyrics page can be toggled with small buttons embedded in the lyrics display

• Fixed the "Start on login" feature on Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" through a new Leopard-specific implementation (again)

• Fixed hyperlink to "Harmonic" in the ReadMe (again)

• Hide the dummy lyrics iTunes sends for OGG-files ("(null)")


1.0.6 (20 Aug 2008):

• Disable the update-check on Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4 as those won't be supported in future releases

• To automatically update to future releases you must first update to this version

• Updated "Sparkle" (the Framework used for Version Checking and Automatic Updates), to fix possible crashes

• Fixed a problem where DesktopLyrics might display the lyrics of the previous song because iTunes was busy while being asked for lyrics

• Fixed a problem where DesktopLyrics would still display lyrics after iTunes was quitted when not using the option "Hide lyrics when iTunes is paused"

• Added French translation (thanks to Pierre Rudloff)

• Fixed hyperlink to "Harmonic" in the ReadMe


1.0.5 (28 Feb 2008):

• IMPORTANT BUGFIX: Fixed crash-on-launch on 10.3.x and 10.4.x

• Fixed possible crash while sending CrashReports


1.0.4 (20 Feb 2008):

• IMPORTANT BUGFIX: REALLY fixed the crashes on 10.3.x this time


1.0.3 (19 Feb 2008):

• IMPORTANT BUGFIX: Fixed crashes on 10.3.x caused by the Update-Framework


1.0.2.1 (6 Feb 2008):

• IMPORTANT BUGFIX: Disabled the new Leopard-specific "Start on login" as it seems to crash


1.0.2 (6 Feb 2008):

• Fixed the reporting of crashes (of DesktopLyrics) to work under Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard"

• Fixed the "Start on login" feature on Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" through a new Leopard-specific implementation

• Added a help-menu and moved appropriate items there

• Renamed preferences-files to avoid possible conflicts (the old one is automatically reused)

• Updated/Expanded the ReadMe/FAQ

• Updated "Sparkle" (the Framework used for Version Checking and Automatic Updates), to fix possible crashes during updates


1.0.1 (2 Oct 2007):

• Updated all hyperlinks in the application and the documentation because of the move to a new hosting for website & e-mail

• Added German translation (Thanks to Thomas Meyer)

• Added a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions - with answers ;-), separated the History into a file and expanded the ReadMe

• Fixed icon which was wrong at small sizes

• Fixed file permissions which could cause DesktopLyrics to fail/crash for unprivileged users

• Fixed hyperlink to "Harmonic" in the ReadMe

• Refined defaults for better first-use experience


1.0 (7 Aug 2007):

• Hide (nontransparent ) background window when the lyrics are empty or iTunes is paused

• Added folder icon

• Added donate option

• Added option to vertically center lyrics

• Fixed crash if the font to use is no longer available

• Fixed update-check, which would still check for updates even if disabled

• Fixed the reporting of crashes to work under Mac OS X 10.3.x, include additional information and ignore some crashes which are not related to DesktopLyrics


1.0b3 (14 Mar 2007):

• Added option to select the screen to display the lyrics on

• Added option to start DesktopLyrics at login

• Added new menu items:
"Send Feedback…",
"Visit Homepage…",
"Open ReadMe…"

• Reorganized Preferences

• Sorted Font-list for better usability

• Changed default update-check interval to "Weekly"

• Added update-check interval options "Bi-weekly" and "Monthly"

• Added check if DesktopLyrics crashed with option to send me the details


1.0b2 (16 Feb 2007):

• Ability to check for updates automatically

• Option to hide user-interface and dock-icon

• Option to hide lyrics like "[Instrumental]"

• Option to show song-info even when the lyrics are empty

• Hide the dummy lyrics iTunes sends for shared music ("msng")


1.0b1 (31 Jan 2007):

• Initial public release