I first present you with the api page for ChartLyrics: http://www.chartlyrics.com/api.aspx

For simplicity reason, I’ll be using simple HTTP Get requests. One of their ways of getting the lyrics first start by using SearchLyric, which returns an id.

The url to request the id looks like this: http://api.chartlyrics.com/apiv1.asmx/SearchLyric?artist=string&song=string

For example, if I was to find the song ‘The Great Escape’ by ‘Boys Like Girls’, then the url I would request looks like this:

http://api.chartlyrics.com/apiv1.asmx/SearchLyric?artist=boys like girls&song=the great escape

Notice I didn’t bother using the escape sequence between the words as the browser automatically does that for you

Going to that link (using Internet Explorer since it displays XML very well) I get something that will look like this:

The two wanted piece of info is LyricChecksum and LyricId. We need these two because the other URL we need to use to request the actually lyrics accepts them:

http://api.chartlyrics.com/apiv1.asmx/GetLyric?lyricId=string&lyricCheckSum=string

Plugging the info in, watch the magic happen:

http://api.chartlyrics.com/apiv1.asmx/GetLyric?lyricId=37660&lyricCheckSum=11599029fc8cbca8ff91a06c0929534a

There you have it! Next tutorial, I’ll give you an implementation using C#.

Disappointed, I went on and searched through Google and Bing until I landed on one I could actually use easily: ChartLyrics. I want to begin with saying that currently, their lyric database isn’t huge as many other sites, but is currently expanding, and works well enough for my purposes. I’ll write a tutorial on using this api later.