Musixmatch's Lyrics was one of our early favorites for Windows Phone — since 2010, if you can believe it. At the time it filled a desired gap: to get song lyrics onto your phone. However, Lyrics one-upped the competition by actually tapping into your Now Playing info, recognizing and then immediately loading that song's lyrics. It was a hard feature to come by back then, and it made Lyrics a must-have for any music lover (or Zune Pass subscriber).

Flashing forward almost two years, Lyrics is still kicking and getting better with each update. Recently the app just hit the big 3.0 milestone, and along with it came a welcome new feature. Say (or sing) hello to Music ID, which is exactly what you think it is. It makes a lot of sense for a lyrics app to also offer a music recognition service, and Lyrics for Windows Phone now does exactly that. And it is fast.

Musixmatch's new Music ID feature recognized Kanye West's "Cold" in about 19 seconds, while Shazam took about 30 seconds, and Bing Audio took even longer. Lyrics also has the upperhand over Shazam, because the use of Music ID is unlimited and won't charge you an outrageous $5.99 price to find matching lyrics. However, competitor SoundHound still has the advantage over both when it comes to live performance recognition.


Finally, the interface also appears to have changed in appearance to more closely match up with its Windows 8 counterpart. In our opinion, it seems more responsive yet the animations are still quite eye-catching. The song lyrics view is mostly unchanged however.

If you're ready to rock out, hit the club, or bust a move in the back of your car, check out the new Lyrics update. Download it for free from the Windows Phone Store by clicking on the tile/link below, or by scanning the QR code with Bing Vision.

Lyrics by Musixmatch Version: 3.0 Price: Free Trial: N/A Store Link