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dai-ski/lyra

★ 19SwiftAudience · generalComplexity · 2/5Setup · moderate

TLDR

A macOS menu bar app that shows live scrolling lyrics for whatever song is currently playing in Spotify or Apple Music, hiding itself automatically when no music is running.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Shows lyrics
      Auto-scrolls
      Hides when idle
    Tech stack
      Swift
      macOS
    Use cases
      Follow lyrics
      Background display
    Audience
      Mac users
      Music listeners
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Code map

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Follow along with live-scrolling lyrics while listening to Spotify or Apple Music without switching away from your current app.

USE CASE 2

Keep lyrics visible in the menu bar throughout a listening session, with the app hiding itself automatically when music stops.

Tech stack

SwiftmacOS

Getting it running

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

No App Store release available, requires cloning the repo and running a provided build script to compile and install the app manually.

No license specified in the repository.

In plain English

Lyra is a small macOS application that sits in the menu bar at the top of your screen and shows the lyrics for whatever song is currently playing in Spotify or Apple Music. As the song progresses, the lyrics scroll automatically to keep up with the current line. The app hides itself when neither music app is open, so it stays out of the way when you are not using it. Installing it requires cloning the code from GitHub, running a provided script that compiles and packages it into a standard Mac app bundle, and then dragging that bundle into your Applications folder. On first launch, macOS will ask for permission to let Lyra read track information from Spotify and Apple Music. After that, it runs silently in the background with no further setup needed. The project is currently Mac-only and only reads from Spotify and Apple Music. The README notes that the developer plans to add support for YouTube Music, a browser extension, and eventually a Windows version, though none of those are available yet. If you decide to remove it, the README walks through both deleting the app bundle and disabling it from launching at login. The project is written in Swift and the source code is available on GitHub for anyone who wants to build it themselves.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
The lyrics in Lyra are not syncing correctly with the song playback position. Help me find and fix the timing logic in the Swift source.
Prompt 2
I want to add YouTube Music support to Lyra. How do I add a new music source that reads the current track title and position from the YouTube Music desktop app?
Prompt 3
Lyra hides when music stops. Help me change it so the menu bar icon stays visible and shows a No music playing label instead of disappearing.
Prompt 4
Help me package the Lyra app bundle for distribution so other people can install it without needing Xcode or running a build script themselves.
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