How to transcribe song lyrics from a video
You want the words to a song from a video, and there is no lyrics page for it, or the one you found is wrong. Here is how to turn the audio into text in one click, with timestamps, instead of scrubbing back and forth transcribing by ear.
Pulling lyrics by hand means playing a line, pausing, typing, rewinding when you miss a word. A transcriber does the listening for you: it converts the audio into text automatically, lines it up with timestamps, and hands you something you can copy or clean up. For a cover, a live clip or an obscure track with no lyrics site, that turns half an hour into a few seconds.
The fastest way: a one-click Chrome extension
Transcribe Video to Text is a free Chrome extension that transcribes the video you are watching, right in the browser.
- Add the extension to Chrome and open the music video.
- Click the extension. It transcribes the audio into text with timestamps.
- Read through and fix any misheard line, if you want it word-perfect.
- Copy the lyrics, or export to Word, TXT or SRT.
Getting a cleaner result
Speech is easier to transcribe than singing, so expect the odd wrong word where the music is loud or the vocals blur together. A quick pass to correct a line or two gets you clean lyrics fast, still far quicker than typing the whole thing by ear. Clear, spoken-word style vocals come out close to perfect.
Why timestamps help
Because each line is stamped with its time in the track, you can jump straight to the part you were unsure about and check it against the audio. That is handy for learning a song, subtitling a clip, or lining up a cover. If you want subtitles specifically, export the transcript as SRT.
Related
The same extension handles spoken-word video too: see how to get a YouTube transcript and how to transcribe a TikTok video.