Generally speaking,  timed song lyric (verse) can be stored in two forms:

1. A text file in "lrc format"
"lrc format" is a popular text lyric format (suffix .lrc) created by "Shiang-Shiang Kuo" (a taiwanese?).

Although it's not an industrial standard,  ".lrc" text file is  the most widely-used lyric form in fact.

sample of a "lrc format" text file

[ti:Scarborough Fair ]
[00:03.15]Scarborough Fair  (Schall and Stieber)
[00:12.57]Are you going to  Scarborough Fair?
[00:20.52]Parsley, sage, rosemary  and thyme.  
[00:31.01]Remember me to one  who lives there. 
[00:38.91]She once was a true  love of mine. 
[00:57.26]Tell her to make me  a cambric shirt
[01:05.06]parsley, sage, rosemary  and thyme 
[01:14.38]without no seams nor  needle work 
[01:23.00]then she'll be a true  love of mine 
[01:42.98]Tell her to find me  an acre of land 
[01:50.75]parsley, sage, rosemary  and thyme
[02:02.13]between the salt water  and the sea strand
[02:10.37]then she'll be a true  love of mine 

Each line should begin with a timestamp in [mm:ss.xx] format. 

2. Part of a tag embedded in an mp3 file
Several different tag formats (really confusing) were provided, e.g.

1. ID3v1
2. ID3v2
3. Lyrics3v1
4. Lyrics3v2

All of them have similar functions and can be used to add lyric. Things will be even confusing for software developers when several tags in different formats coexist in one mp3 file. So far, the best and most useful tag format is ID3v2.



Comparison of  lrc file and id3v2 tag:

1. Both of them can do the same job for synchronization of mp3 and song lyrics.
2. ID3v2 tag is a little over-complicated for home users. Users have to use special software such as Itunes or mp3tag to change the lyric tag.
3. A text editor and an mp3 player with "pause/rewind" function are enough for a home user to  make a lrc file.

Maple slideshow builder can only use text files in lrc format, or  text files without  timestamps so far.  Names of  lyric files must end with ".lrc".

Support for id3v2's lyric tag in Maple slideshow builder would be added only when major music sites began to provide mp3s with embedded song lyrics


Source of Raw Lyric text

1. Lyricwiki.org
   

Source of timed Lyrics

1. A few timed lyrics can be found on Lyricwiki.org 

Make a timed lrc file by yourself in Maple slideshow builder
 It's really tedious to make a lrc file with a text editor and an mp3 player ("step, pause, rewind on error,  write down manually"). 

And I wrote some code to automate these procedures with keyboard in Maple slideshow builder.  It's not difficult to use (at least for me).

0. Launch Maple slideshow builder

• Click the 's' key (start) to start the music, it will pause automatically after about 500ms. 
• Repeat  clicking 's'  and listen to the music carefully. 
• Click the "Enter" key  at the end of the current line of lyric. 
• Click the "Backspace" key to rewind 10 seconds if you made any mistake. 
• Repeat above procedures

It will not bring you trouble as long as you do not redistribute unauthorized  timed lyric files.

stevpan@gmail.com