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Show HN: We made a spam-free lyric search engine

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Re: Show HN: We made a spam-free lyric search engine

#121

Post by jarek » Sun, Aug 28, 2011, 3:42 PM UTC

Major_Grooves wrote: post #102

I remember someone once posted about running one of these lyrics sites. I can't remember if I found it here or elsewhere. Anyway, their point was that with a lyrics website, someone only wants to go to the website to find the lyrics. Once they have the lyrics they have no desire to look at other other lyrics - they arrive and then leave/bounce immediately. That is why the adverts on these sites are so spammy. They ha…

Interestingly, after a couple dozen lyric searches, I did develop some lyric website loyalty. I'll still come in via search and leave almost immediately after, but I'll actively look for the sites in search results. Criteria include perceived correctness, readability, and not killing my browser (relative to other sites out there).

I also like Songmeanings' comment/user input area, which usually has sensible comments I am occasionally interested in reading.

Re: Show HN: We made a spam-free lyric search engine

#122

Post by biturd » Sun, Aug 28, 2011, 8:43 PM UTC

robryan wrote: post #60

biturd wrote: post #34

According to the legal, you are not storing the lyrics. If that is the case, where are you sourcing them from? Can you give a little background on how the site works, what it runs on and other interesting details?

Possibly scraping the lyrics?

I was thinking that as well, but if they are not storing the data, that would mean a real time scrape? Seems a little troublesome. All it would take for the site they are scraping from to break the entire site is a single character change probably, then their regex fails.

Re: Show HN: We made a spam-free lyric search engine

#123

Post by ericmsimons » Sun, Aug 28, 2011, 9:02 PM UTC

riffraff wrote: post #78

ericmsimons wrote: post #69

I did something similar to this a year or two ago ( http://www.lyricfuser.com ) I'm not sure how you guys are scraping the lyrics, but almost all of the large lyric sites ended up blocking my server's IP. You should do this in Javascript if possible to avoid getting blocked. Looks great though!

not sure if it fits you but there _are_ options to avoid scraping the lyrics sites, e.g. http://musixmatch.com/

Never knew about this - thanks!!

Re: Show HN: We made a spam-free lyric search engine

#124

Post by azylman » Sun, Aug 28, 2011, 9:14 PM UTC

morsch wrote: post #19

Lots of AJAX with no state in the url. Means I can't send my friends to a search results page (bad) or to a lyrics page (worse).

Second this. It also means I can't set up a quick search in Chrome. That's the only thing preventing me from using this all the time.

Re: Show HN: We made a spam-free lyric search engine

#125

Post by songrabbit » Sun, Aug 28, 2011, 9:31 PM UTC

morsch wrote: post #19

Lots of AJAX with no state in the url. Means I can't send my friends to a search results page (bad) or to a lyrics page (worse).

Linking to particular songs is live.

Re: Show HN: We made a spam-free lyric search engine

#126

Post by songrabbit » Sun, Aug 28, 2011, 9:34 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #110

It's great, and I'll definitely be using it! Please add a GET-param based search, e.g. http://songrabbit.com/search?q=sabaton+primo+victoria (BTW., no results :(), so that we could add it to browsers as webjumps/quick searches/however it's called - e.g. so that I could type just: 'l sabaton primo victoria', and the browser would take me to your site :).

Linking to songs or search results is live now

Re: Show HN: We made a spam-free lyric search engine

#127

Post by dpetrov » Sun, Aug 28, 2011, 9:36 PM UTC

Is there a good reason why the lyrics text is not right-aligned? I understand symmetry looks better in such a design, but it's much easier to follow along with a song when you don't have to consciously look for the beginning of the next line.

Re: Show HN: We made a spam-free lyric search engine

#128

Post by songrabbit » Sun, Aug 28, 2011, 9:46 PM UTC

klapinat0r wrote: post #97

asmallgrin wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

true, we will be working on a remedy for this.

It doesn't have to be complex. I get around this simply by re-submitting if the hashtag is present: http://blurk.org/#tv-the+simpsons Similar to your site in terms of "not storing, just search engine". I've put the javascript snippet for it at the bottom of the page source.

This should be live now - let us know if you have any more suggestions.

Re: Show HN: We made a spam-free lyric search engine

#129

Post by kilian » Sun, Aug 28, 2011, 10:03 PM UTC

SwellJoe wrote: post #79

Add chord charts, and I'll be a regular user. The existing tab/chord sites are just as bad as the lyrics sites for spamminess and nasty Flash ads (they're the one site I use regularly that leads me to want to install AdBlock).

Sorry for the self-promotion, but you might find http://guitaryst.com to your liking :)

Re: Show HN: We made a spam-free lyric search engine

#130

Post by kilian » Sun, Aug 28, 2011, 10:10 PM UTC

chrischen wrote: post #27

songrabbit wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's okay, for now this just exists as a solution to the problem that no lyric sites exist which are not aggressively bad. Though, we might contend that a large amount of traffic comes from the long-tail search because there is no site worth going to - ie it doesn't matter which lyric site I use, so I might as well just google it.

http://lystener.com/ exists. There must be a reason why these clean lyrics sites aren't more prominent.

Thanks for mentioning Lystener! I think it's because lyric sites aren't sticky. You're there for a song, and you're gone again. Lystener switches that around, kind of, but you still need the initial urge to look up a song lyric.

That, and I do a terrible job of promoting it.

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