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"Unfortunately, we are not licensed to display the full lyrics for this song at the moment" -- what's going on?

Certain songwriters and music publishers have not allowed LyricFind to license their work. Consequently, LyricWikia is only allowed to display at most the first few lines of the lyrics, an amount considered "fair use". However, LyricFind does continually attempt to renegotiate licensing rights, and when a song's status changes, its full lyrics will be added here as soon as possible; a song that is not available today may be available tomorrow.
LyricWikia can display other data for these songs, such as album appearances, YouTube videos, Wikipedia links, etc. Any edits or additions to this data need to be handled by a LyricWikia administrator, via the Job Exchange page. The "I want to edit metadata" link following the abbreviated lyrics is a link to the Job Exchange.
Please note that there is no need to worry about Gracenote licensing status when adding a new Song page. There will already be a protected Song page present for any song that Gracenote has been unable to license.

Why can't I highlight the lyrics?

Due to our licensing arrangement with Gracenote, we are required to have several copy-protection measures. One of them is to disable highlighting and right-clicks on Song pages and any other pages that contain lyrics. However, on pages without lyrics, and when editing a lyrics page, these measures are not in place.

Why can't I find [Specific Artist] or [Specific Song]?

One possibility is that the song or artist is not actually in our database as yet. Another possibility is that the name you typed is not the recognized name for that artist or for the song. For example, you might be looking for Eminem but typed "Slim Shady" or "Marshall Mathers" instead. Also note, that page names on LyricWikia are case sensitive. If you cannot find NoRMAhl (which is the correct spelling and capitalization) please use the search functionality to check if, for example, "Normahl" exists. If you are sure that the page you are looking for does not exist you are always at liberty to create it. However please read Help:Contents/Getting Started/Creating A New Page first. Not only will this page assist you in creating the new page, but there are certain instances when a new page should not be created.

[Page Name] is not capitalized correctly...it should be [page name], right?

The capitalization of artist names, album and song titles is simply that the first letter of each word should be capitalized whether it is normally capitalized by the artist or not. (N.B.: Initials grouped together are interpreted as a word.) All the characters after the initial letter of each word should match the capitalization that the artist chose, e.g. T.A.T.u. as opposed to T.A.T.U. This provides a simple and uniform policy for naming pages across all nationalities. It also avoids the need for programmers to write a lot of additional code to determine the correct capitalization of pages when integrating the site into music players and the like. See LyricWiki:Page Names for the complete policy on naming song, album and artist pages.

[Artist:song name] is incorrectly spelled or not capitalized in accordance with LyricWikia's page naming policy. How can this be fixed?

The way to correct an incorrectly named page is to rename it to the correct page name. If you are registered and logged in, you will find the rename option at the top of the page. Please ensure that after the rename, you update all the links relating to the renamed page, e.g. the artist or song name in the {{SongFooter}} template, the artist's name in the {{Song}} template, the links to the song on the album and artist pages, etc.

Where is that "rename" option at the top of the page?

In the default Wikia skin, it is an option in the "edit" dropdown (click on the downward-pointing arrow). In other skins, it may be a separate tab or link in the action bar.
The option is not visible to unregistered and newly registered users, who are not allowed to rename pages due to vandalism concerns. If you have recently registered, please keep making edits, and you will soon gain the ability to rename pages.
The option is also not visible on pages that have been protected against being renamed.

I entered [Correct Pagename], but was redirected to [Incorrect Pagename]. What now?

You can return to the redirect page by clicking the "(Redirected from …)" link below the title bar. Click the "edit" button, replace the redirect with the content of the incorrectly titled page, and finally redirect the incorrectly titled page to the newly restored correctly titled one.

"Delete placeholder to make way for a protected title." - What is this?

Please read the subsequent section.

There is a page that does not seem to exist, but there's no Create-button. Why?

Some pages would be "takedowns" now if they existed when Gracenote told us to take them down. But because they did not exist there's a different way we prevent the adding of lyrics: the pages have been "create-protected". For you they appear like normal missing pages, except that the create button is hidden. You may sometimes see a deletion hint with the information "Delete placeholder to make way for a protected title." on those pages. That is that page was once a so-called placeholder with nothing but an edit-protected note that this page was taken down. We found that this method had some disadvantages (explained here); the deletions are result of the conversion of placeholders to protected titles.

When I tried to rename [Incorrect Artist:Song Name] to [Correct Artist:Song Name], I got a message telling me that the page already exists. So what do I do now?

If a song page already exists with the correct title, you will not be able to rename the page. Instead you will need to redirect it. However before proceeding to do this, always compare the two pages, because although the page you were trying to rename may be incorrectly named, it may actually be better formatted, have more accurate lyrics, and have more complete information than the song page that is correctly named. If this is the case, then you should endeavor to improve the contents of the correctly named page before replacing the contents of the incorrectly named page with #REDIRECT [[Correct Artist:Song Name]]. See Help:Redirect for further information on redirecting pages.

[Specific Artist] is spelled incorrectly, and all the album and song pages containing their name are incorrect, too. What should I do?

All these pages need to be renamed to the correctly named pages and all links updated accordingly. The pages that need to be renamed can be established by checking the Special:PrefixIndex. If there are multiple incorrect pages and/or you do not want to undertake moving these pages yourself, simply place {{Move|Destination|Reason}} at the top of the artist's page, providing the relevant details.
Adding a {{Move}} template to the artist's page requests that the page be renamed to the correct name. Using this template also places the artist page in Category:Requests For Moves, whereupon it will be looked at by an administrator. Administrators have access to special tools including a script that can change the prefix of multiple pages. However, it should be noted that if the correctly named page already exists, the incorrectly named page will not be renamed by the script, but will still need to be redirected or renamed manually by the administrator as detailed above.
If, after a few days, your request has not been taken care of, post a message on the Job Exchange.

Two pages have been created for [Artist] - one is correctly spelled, and one is not. Both contain the same albums and songs. How can I fix this?

If a page already exists with the correct title, you will not be able to rename the page. Instead you will need to compare and improve the contents of each correctly named page before redirecting the incorrectly named pages to them (as above). Since this can be a herculean task if there are multiple pages and links to correct, it is recommended that you place {{Move|Destination|Reason}} at the top of the incorrectly named artist's page, providing the relevant details. As mentioned above, using the {{Move}} template will place the artist's page in the Category:Requests For Moves where it will be looked at by an administrator. However, it should be noted that if the correctly named page already exists, the incorrectly named page will not be renamed by the script and will still need to be redirected or renamed manually by the administrator (as detailed above).

[Artist:Song] isn't by [Artist], so it should be deleted, shouldn't it?

It should be renamed or redirected to the correct artist. Always consider redirecting a page instead of marking it for deletion. See also LyricWiki:Deletion.

I've just come across a page that appears to not belong here (spam or other non-musical content). What can be done?

Such pages will usually be deleted by an administrator. Please double-check that the page is actually invalid before proceeding. Once this has been established, mark the page for deletion by adding {{Deletion|Reason [[link]]}} at the top of the page to request that an administrator look at the page. For the full criteria administrators use in deciding to delete a page, see LyricWiki:Deletion.

Who is this "Janitor" who keeps adding songs to the Other Songs section of [Artist]'s page?

Janitor is a bot, and he is doing exactly what he was programmed to do: add Song pages to the "Other Songs" sections on Artist pages that aren't linked to from anywhere (i.e. they are "orphaned"). Janitor does this so that we humans can then allocate these songs to Album pages, or redirect or rename them if appropriate. Chances are that the pages you thought you had deleted actually needed to be renamed or redirected. However, if moving or redirecting the page is not an option and you do feel that a particular page does need to be deleted, add the {{Deletion}} template to the top of the page as outlined above.

Instrumentals have no place on a lyrics site, do they?

LyricWikia is not just a database of lyrics. We don't aim to provide absolutely complete and comprehensive discographies, but we do endeavor to provide information and links to other sites about artists, releases, and their songs. As such, pages for instrumentals do serve a purpose on our site.
People may also hear of a song title and look for it, either directly on the site or through a webservice, not knowing whether it is an instrumental or not. If a page has been created, they then know that the song is an instrumental and does not have any lyrics, instead of just getting no result. Yet another reason for creating pages for instrumentals is so that these will be entered as such in digital music players. That way, one can distinguish between instrumentals and song pages that have been created but have no lyrics entered as yet.
To create an instrumental page, place {{Instrumental}} within the <lyrics> tags and delete the language parameter from the {{SongFooter}}. Everything else should be done as on a regular song page. For an example of a "(near) perfect" instrumental page, see Pink Floyd:Love Scene (Version 4).

When using your API to display lyrics I only get small parts of them. Can you fix that?

Due to the Gracenote licensing discussed above, we are prohibited from giving programmatic access to our database such as providing the full lyrics through our API. The small bit displayed now is considered "fair use" and gives you just enough to make sure that you got the match correct so that you can link to the page.

What do all these coloured stars mean?

The stars on Song, Album, and Artist pages are part of LyricWikia's page ranking program. The colour of the stars, which range from green to gold, is indicative of the level of quality the page has currently attained when compared to a set of criteria. For information on upgrading pages, see How to Rank Pages.

Is there a page where users can request lyrics that aren't already on this site?

Of course! See LyricWiki:Requests. If you are interested in adding requested lyrics, also see LyricWiki:Wanted Songs.

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