YouLy+

A web extension to elevate your YouTube Music, Tidal & Apple Music Experience with ultra-performant, word-by-word lyrics.

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➡️ Why YouLy+?

Streaming services offer great music libraries, but their web interfaces are buggy, outdated and often only have line-by-line lyrics. YouLy+ replaces these broken implementations with a word-by-word, lightweight, precise (idts), and visually faithful rendering engine.

Other open-source projects that provide Apple Music-like lyrics often require dedicated GPUs for full performance. YouLy+ smartly utilises CSS animations to hit 60FPS on almost any machine with graphics acceleration. See Performance Reference.

Supported streaming platforms

• YouTube Music: Transforms the default static or plain text lyrics into a rich, timed, karaoke-style experience.
• Tidal Web (Experimental): While Tidal Web offers synced lyrics, they are limited to line-by-line synchronization. YouLy+ makes them word-by-word.
• Apple Music Web (Experimental): The native web player attempts word-by-word sync, but the implementation is flawed and inaccurate. YouLy+ replaces their laggy implementation with a CSS-animation driven smooth experience.

Installation

⭐ Recommended: Install from Official Stores

For the safest and easiest experience, install YouLy+ directly from your browser's web store. This ensures you get automatic updates and a verified version of the extension.

For Developers & Advanced Users: Install from Source

For Chromium Based Browsers (Manifest V3)

1. Clone or Download the Repository:

   git clone [https://github.com/ibratabian17/YouLyPlus.git](https://github.com/ibratabian17/YouLyPlus.git)
   

2. Alternatively, you can download the latest release from Github Releases and extract them.
3. Open Chrome Extensions Page: Navigate to chrome://extensions/.
4. Enable Developer Mode: Toggle the "Developer mode" switch in the top right corner.
5. Load Unpacked Extension: Click on "Load unpacked" and select the cloned repository folder.

For Firefox

1. Clone or Download the Repository:

   git clone [https://github.com/ibratabian17/YouLyPlus.git](https://github.com/ibratabian17/YouLyPlus.git)
   

2. Alternatively, you can download the latest release from Github Releases.
3. Open Firefox Debugging Page: Navigate to about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox.
4. Load Temporary Add-on: Click on "Load Temporary Add-on" and choose the manifest.json file from the repository folder.

Usage

Once installed, simply open one of the supported players:

• YouTube Music
• Tidal Web Player (Experimental)
• Apple Music Web

Play any song, and the lyrics panel will automatically be enhanced by YouLy+.

• Quick Settings: Access quick toggles by clicking the YouLy+ icon in your browser's toolbar.
• Full Settings: For comprehensive customization, click "More Settings" from the popup.

Notes

• Due to TIDAL updated the UI recently, the extension may lack of some features. I will try my best to fix them as soon as possible.

Features

Core Features

• Word-by-word, syllable-synced lyrics: YouLy+ features real-time, accurately synced lyrics with word-by-word highlighting.
• Apple Music engine overhaul: Replaces the resource-heavy native Apple Music Web UI. YouLy+ replace their murdered animation with Apple native-like animation with optimization. It also expands the lyric sources—if AM lacks synced lyrics, YouLy+ finds them elsewhere!
• Multi-platform fallback: Automatically searches multiple platforms to find lyrics for almost every song.
• Fits seamlessly: Replaces default lyrics panels out of the box with designs that fit in to whichever platform you use.

Translation & Romanization

• Instant Translation: YouLy+ utilises label-provided translations but also supports Google Translate, DeepL, and Gemini/OpenRouter (BYO API key) translations.
• Romanization: For different writing systems, YouLy+ can provide romanizations from your own device without external API locally! or you can use Google Translate or Openrouter or Gemini AI (BYO API key) for better romanization. (Local Romanize for Japanese and Arabic may need to download dictionary/model on the Settings Menu)
• Full Gemini AI Control: For advanced users, connect your own Gemini AI account to customize translation instructions and AI settings.
• Transliteration: You speak on non latin language but want to read lyrics in your own script? YouLy+ can help you. For example, you can transliterate lyrics from latin alphabet to hangul, arabic or many other scripts. (AI Required)

Appearance & Customization

• Dynamic Theming: Lyrics and backgrounds automatically adapt to the song's color palette.
• Custom CSS: Full control for advanced users to inject custom CSS and style the lyrics exactly how you want.

Performance

• Optimized Renderer: YouLy+ is designed and tested to run smoothly on older hardware without noticeable lag. on MBA M1, it stable at 60FPS with all heavy effects enabled.
• Lightweight Mode: While 15 years old PC can run it on heavy effect enabled (AMD FX6300), more potato pc can enable lightweight mode to run it at 60FPS with less effects.
• Smart Music Video Adaption: Automatically adapts lyrics timeline to follow non-music segments like intros, outros, and sponsors on music videos with SponsorBlock/Subtitle Alignment. (Feature currently exclusive to YouTube Music)

Performance Reference

The benchmark machine used to develop this project is older hardware (AMD FX-6300 + GT 620 from ~2012). YouLy+ is optimized to run where native web players fail.

GPU Performance (Targeting 60 FPS)

• 768p (1366x768): Stable 60 FPS on NVIDIA GT 620 (1GB) or equivalent integrated graphics.

• 1080p (1920x1080): GTX 650 / GT 1030 or above recommended for a locked 60 FPS.

• Tested on a M1 MacBook Air (base specs, 2560x1600 (1440x900 DPI) Retina display), YouLy+ stays stable at 60FPS with little decrease in battery life.

Self-Hosting & Open Source

YouLy+ is proudly open-source.

Backend API (Lyrics+): YouLy+ mainly utilises Lyrics+ for lyrics. This API is also fully open-source. If you could host your instance, YouLy+ would benefit lots from it! See instructions at the repo: ibratabian17/lyricsplus

External Services & Data Sources

YouLy+ integrates with several third-party lyrics providers. By using this extension, you agree to the respective Terms of Service of these platforms:

• lrc.red: Apple Music word-synced lyrics database.
• Unison: As our alternate word-sync API lyrics using data from the Better-Lyrics community.
• LRCLIB: A massive, crowdsourced database API that used as a primary fallback for synchronized lyrics.
• Lyrics+ Backend: Our internal engine that prioritizes official metadata from Apple Music, QQ Music, and Musixmatch to ensure professional-grade accuracy. while it has our own community-driven source too!

Development

If you're interested in contributing to or modifying YouLy+:

1. Clone the Repository:

   git clone [https://github.com/ibratabian17/YouLyPlus.git](https://github.com/ibratabian17/YouLyPlus.git)
   

2. Load the Extension: Use your browser’s "Load unpacked" feature (as described in the Installation section) to test your changes in real-time.

Packaging

To create distributable .zip files for various browsers:

1. Prerequisites: Ensure you have jq and a zip utility (zip or 7z) installed on your system.
2. Run the Script:
   • On Linux/macOS: ./bundle.sh
   • On Windows (PowerShell): ./bundle.ps1

These scripts will generate optimized packages for different browsers within the dist/ folder.

Contributing

Contributions are very appreciated! Please feel free to fork this repository and submit a pull request. For significant changes or new features, it's recommended to open an issue first to discuss your ideas.

Contributors

Thanks to everyone who has contributed code, translations, bug reports and ideas to YouLy+!

And also big thanks for @boidushya for optimization helps. @pascal-00, @binimum and @mgytr for keeping the infrastructure alive!

This project is a dedicated effort covering both the client extension and the server backend. If YouLy+ enhances your music experience, please consider supporting its continued development:

• Support on Ko-fi
• Support on Patreon
• GitHub Sponsors (see FUNDING.yml)