Feature request - add Lyrics role

[OnFreund]

Add a Lyrics role so SendSpin servers can share track lyrics with clients, similar to the Artwork role.
The support object will include an ordered lists of requested formats.

Open questions:

1. Should we have lyrics_url as part of the metadata similar to artwork, or just binary support?
2. What lyrics formats should be supported?
3. Should we have one lyrics stream per track (like audio), or one per channel (like artwork)? The latter could be useful in case multiple formats are available (e.g. both karaoke and text)

[balloob]

Not sure about URL, I think we can just provide it. I do like the channel idea,

Should we have some switch command because you don't want them all? How far are we going with this. Do we support subtitles for audio books in other languages ? And if it's a 10 hour audio book, the lyrics can't all be sent at once (this is probably too big an edge case to cover).

Probably MVP keep it simple, 1 format, no channels?

[OnFreund]

Audiobooks are a great question, though even a 10 hour audio book would be relatively small if it's text only (the entire LOTR trilogy should be about 3MB in UTF-8 - should be ok over a local network). I think we can probably send at once, but add a size limit.

I do think that karaoke subtitles are going to become very popular, so I would consider 2 channels, and support .lrc and .cdg.

[Hedda]

Directly related to #1

[OnFreund]

Thanks @Hedda, not sure how I missed it 🤦‍♂️

[Hedda]

I understand that LRC (text-based) and CDG (graphics-based) karaoke lyrics files are the two most common karaoke formats today,

• You can find some more good info formatting LRC here -> https://kodi.wiki/view/Archive:Create_LRC_karaoke_lyrics_files
• As relevant to Sendspin and Music Assistant the CDG format is primarly available as MP3+CDG (MP3 + file with timed graphics).

Another relativly common karaoke format is KAR which more or less contain Karaoke Midi Music + timed lyrics in text format.

do think that karaoke subtitles are going to become very popular, so I would consider 2 channels, and support .lrc and .cdg.

For the record (pun intended), I disagree on the likelihood that any lyrics features could not gain popular in done right, but it does of course depend on the use case and especially which player you are using, or more specifically if that player has a larger display.

If the use case is to use for example Kodi (formerly XBMC), which is meant to be presented on a so called 10-foot user interface, meaning a large-screen television in your living-room, and if you consider the use case of the new party plugin in Music Assistant as the use case with that then you are talking about a whole other level a showcase piece if could get timed karaoke lyrics supported with Sendspin from Music Assistant.

Also might add that do not need microphone support to make having karaoke lyrics displayed a fun thing at home parties! 🥳

Personally I have had both the classic SingStar as well as Let's Sing on earlier generations of PlayStation + Xbox game-consoles with microphones in the past, and while those games was fun, I remember and have very fond members of how the simple lyrics display in Kodi/XBMC with basic support for timed song lyrics graphics/text dispayed on a television from CD+G, MP3+CD, LRC, and KAR files was the highlight at many parties in my 20s and 30s. Unfortunatly the built-in karaoke subsystem in Kodi/XBMC which was tied to a dedicated visualization for it was removed in Kodi v16 in favour of third-party karaoke addons for Kodi.

Tip for LRC/KAR/CDG karaoke "player" code in C++ suggest reference old XBMC/Kodi codebase (before Kodi v16, i.e. "Isengard"):

• https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/tree/Isengard/xbmc/music/karaoke

  • https://kodi.wiki/view/Features_and_supported_formats

    "XBMC/Kodi also have support for most popular karaoke computer file formats, and is able to play and display timed song lyrics graphics/text from CD+G, LRC, and KAR files."

By the way, cross-posting my reply regarding the comment in #80 that questioned if the CD+G karaoke format was niche:

Originally posted by @Hedda in #80 (comment)

lrc files are pretty ubiquitous, but I haven't heard of CD+G before.
Why should we support CD+G? I mean if it's really niche we can't depend on Sendspin implementations supporting that.

FYI, CDG+G is not niche at all, it is an official standard for Audio-CD with Graphics (as Audio Compact Discs with digital images) that all professional Karaoke machines uses (such as used in Karaoke bars and home use), so almost all songs are available in that format.The ”G” stands for Graphics and as I understand the format is it just images for each character and as such does not need a font engine to display wierd characters for all languages. Anyway, more common nowadays are MP3+G which is just when an the redbook Audio-CD part been converted to MPG and the Graphics broken out to separate files (.cdg).

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD%2BG

Quote from the "Usage" section in that Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD%2BG#Usage

"Along with dedicated karaoke machines, other consumer devices that play CD+G format CDs include the NEC TurboGrafx-CD (a CD-ROM peripheral for the TurboGrafx-16) and Turbo Duo, as well as the Japan-only successor the PC-FX, the Philips CD-i, the Sega CD, Sega Saturn,[5] the JVC X'Eye, the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, the Amiga CD32 and Commodore CDTV, and the Atari Jaguar CD (an attachment for the Atari Jaguar). Some CD-ROM drives can also read this data. Pioneer's LaserActive player can also play CD+G discs, as long as either the PAC-S1/S-10 or PAC-N1/N10 game modules are installed."

"Since 2003, some standalone DVD players have supported the CD+G format. Regular audio CD players will output only the audio tracks as if it was a normal music CD, unless otherwise designed to read the extra data (lyrics and images).[6]"