Can I have lyrics in my captions and/or transcript?

Closed Captioning songs and music with CaptionSync is easy. This article shows how.

Requesting Transcription for Songs:

Our policy regarding songs and music is to refer to them with parenthetical comments, e.g.: [ music ], and [ singing ]. Usually our transcribers do not transcribe any songs present in the audio, unless you make that request in the Guidance field. You should also supply the transcriber with the lyrics whenever possible. Note that if you don't supply us with the lyrics, results may be poor due to the difficulty of capturing such content. Make a note at the beginning of the guidance box saying "Have lyrics:" and enter the lyrics next. Also note that if your audio content contains songs, we'll only repair any sync issues pertaining to them if you requested Cinema Certified Result Review when you made the submission. Learn more about our Cinema Certified Result Review service in our article on this topic.

Handling FCC Rule 79.1:

If you're looking for FCC Rule 79.1 handling, please read our article on Captions FCC Rule 79.1 compliant.

Uploading your own transcript containing lyrics:

If you're making a Captioning-Only request, ensure the lyrics have sync markers around them, and follow our Transcription Guidelines. Example:

^M00:02:47 Verse1
^M00:02:50 Verse2
^M00:02:53 Verse3
^M00:02:57 Verse4

Adding lyrics to an already completed submission:

If you want to add the lyrics to an already completed Captioning submission, you can do a Redo of your request and get a new set of captions. Download the marked transcript available at the Submission Details page of your request, by the Text Transcript Created/Submitted field. Add sync markers around the lyrics, to ensure sync. Example:

^M00:02:47 Verse1
^M00:02:50 Verse2
^M00:02:53 Verse3
^M00:02:57 Verse4

Make sure you don't delete any other sync markers you see there (e.g. ^M), and that the text matches the audio. When you're done editing the transcript, save it as .txt. On the Redo page, choose the Upload revised transcript option.

Fixing sync during songs:

If you don't want to request Cinema Certified Result Review to have us fix sync for you, you can do it yourself by adding more sync markers around the lyrics. Follow the instructions in the section above, and do a Redo of your submission. Example:

^M00:02:47 Verse1
^E00:02:49
^B00:02:50
  Verse2
^M00:02:53 Verse3
^M00:02:57 Verse4

Learn more about using sync markers in our Sync Marker Summary, Caption Results Not in Sync and Getting Sync Markers to Work articles. Then complete the Redo process in order to generate a new set of captions.