Support & How-To

Getting started, finding tracks, and making your own · macOS

On this page

Getting started in three steps
Importing your files (MP4, MP3+G, ZIP)
Lyrics: auto-match, fix timing, and AI generation
Where to get karaoke tracks (legally)
Making your own tracks
Common questions
Contact

Getting started in three steps

Import. Drag in karaoke videos, an MP3 with its .cdg, or a ZIP holding both — single files or whole folders.
Play. Double-click any song, or right-click → Play Now. If a matching lyric file is found, the overlay appears automatically.
Sing. Go fullscreen for a big, TV-friendly display, and nudge the timing with one click if a line is early or late.

Importing your files

Karaoke reads the formats a real karaoke library comes in — nothing to convert first:

Video — MP4, M4V, MOV, MPG, MPEG.
Audio — MP3, M4A, AAC, WAV, AIFF, CAF, FLAC, Opus.
MP3+G (CD+G) — an MP3 paired with its .cdg graphics file; the original disc visuals play back with the highlight sweeping each line.
ZIP archives — most karaoke tracks are sold as a ZIP holding an MP3 and a CDG. Drop one straight in and Karaoke unpacks and pairs them — folders of ZIPs too.

Import a single file, a whole folder, or a batch of ZIPs, and Karaoke builds a searchable library with a status dot for each song (ready · needs a lyric review · no lyrics yet).

Lyrics: match, fix, and generate

Auto-matched lyric files

Drop .lrc or .srt files next to your songs and Karaoke matches them by name — decoding UTF-8, Big5, GBK, Shift-JIS and more so non-Latin lyrics don't turn to mojibake.

Fixing timing

Lyrics rarely line up perfectly. Nudge everything earlier or later with an offset, use tap-to-sync to set the first line as it plays, or drop multi-point anchors so the app interpolates the timing across a song that drifts. The line-by-line editor also lets you fix wording and shift all times at once.

AI lyric generation

No lyric file? Karaoke can transcribe one with timestamps and save it as a synced .lrc:

Apple Speech — free, on-device, nothing sent anywhere; best for clear vocals, with a picker for 11 languages.
OpenAI Whisper — bring your own API key; handles backing music and any language. The audio for that one song is sent to OpenAI to transcribe.

You preview every generated line and edit before saving. See the privacy policy for exactly what each engine does with audio.

Where to get karaoke tracks (legally)

Karaoke doesn't include or sell songs — you bring your own. If you need more, buy them from a licensed karaoke store so the artists and publishers are paid and your files are yours to keep. A few well-established, authorised sources:

Karaoke Version Buy individual songs as MP3+G, MP4 (HD) video, or KFN — one of the largest legal single-track stores. karaoke-version.com Sing to the World Licensed karaoke backing tracks as MP3+G downloads or on CD+G disc. singtotheworld.com Party Tyme Karaoke (via PCDJ) A fully-licensed commercial karaoke library; subscription and purchase options. pcdj.com CDGDownload.com (CAVS) Licensed CD+G karaoke downloads from a long-running catalogue. cavsusa.com/cdgdownload OpenKJ Karaoke Database Not a download site — a free search tool to find which legal catalogue carries a given song, across Party Tyme, Karaoke Version, Sunfly and more. db.openkj.org

A note on rights. Only buy karaoke tracks from a store that is licensed to distribute them. Sites offering popular songs as “free” downloads are usually infringing, and downloading from them — or ripping tracks from streaming or video sites — is not legal. You are responsible for holding the rights to any file you import into Karaoke. TraLand.com is not affiliated with the stores above and simply lists them as legitimate starting points.

Making your own tracks

You don't need a store to build a library — a few on-brand ways to make tracks you own:

Rip a CD+G disc you own. If you bought a karaoke CD+G disc, extract the MP3 and .cdg (or a ZIP of the pair) and import them directly.
Add lyrics to a song you own. Have the video or audio but no lyrics? Import it, then use AI lyric generation (above) to create a synced .lrc, or paste lyrics you wrote and line them up with tap-to-sync.
Bring your own LRC/SRT. If you already have a lyric file, drop it in — Karaoke matches and displays it, and you can fine-tune the timing in the editor.

However you make a track, you're responsible for having the right to use the underlying song.

Common questions

Which file should I buy — MP3+G or MP4?

Both work. MP3+G (CD+G) gives the classic disc graphics with the app drawing the highlight; MP4 is a full karaoke video. Buy whichever a store offers for the song you want.

My lyrics are in the wrong language / show as boxes.

Karaoke decodes UTF-8, Big5, GBK, Shift-JIS and more. If a file still looks wrong it may use an unusual encoding — re-save it as UTF-8 and re-import.

Can it open a physical karaoke machine's songs?

Karaoke plays standard media and CD+G files on your Mac. Proprietary hardware formats (locked SCDG, machine-only discs) aren't supported.

Contact

Questions, bugs, or a track that won't import? Email support@traland.com — please include your macOS version, the Karaoke version (Karaoke ▸ About), and what you tried to open.