Here is what you must gather for your song citation:


To cite written song lyrics, you should make note of the following pieces of information:
1. Singer’s name
2. Songwriter’s name
3. Title of the song (and subtitle, if there is one)
4. Title of the album (and subtitle, if there is one)
5. Album’s Edition (if there is one)
6. Track number
7. Publisher
8. Year of publication
9. Website or Database where the lyrics were found
10. URL
11. The names of any other contributors


You may wish to do in-text citations in case the writer of the song says anything eloquently or the lyrics inside quotation marks proves your point of view.

You may use a restricted part of the song if it is a research paper, but there is still a need to know the rules of quoting on the reference page or in the in-text citations.

To cite a song (an audio recording), start with this template:

As for the long quote song lyrics and those that have four lines or are a bit longer, they should be put in the block quotation where you use the indentation of the whole quote from the above paragraph.

In order to make citations of the song lyrics in Modern Language Association format, simply write the name of the artist in parentheses and finish the citation with the needed punctuation.

Because we are dealing with lyrics, our in-text citation should consist of the songwriter’s last name (Who), the date the recording or printed music was originally released (When), and the track number for recorded music or line number or pamphlet page number for printed lyrics (Where). Run-in citations for these songs could look like this:

Lyrics are one of the most effective tools in an essay to express certain feelings, thoughts, and ideas. You may decide to cite lyrics if you see that the author of a song has created a great line that expresses your point perfectly.


How to cite a song in MLA while quoting lyrics from a transcript:

However, you must follow the copyright and not use the whole song in your text. The good news is that there are no legal requirements about how many words you may use not to be convicted of plagiarism. Whenever you use some part of a song in your paper, do not forget to include in-text citations, a list of all citations, or a reference page. And you may sleep calmly – no one will ever say that you stole their words.

Here’s how to cite them in MLA 8, MLA 9, or any other grade.

If you are quoting several lines of song lyrics (such as an entire verse), format it as a block quote, using standard APA formatting. Drop the parenthetical citation a line below the lyrics in order not to interfere with the text.

Here’s how to cite a song in-text mla:

There are different formats (MLA, APA, Harvard) and each one has its peculiarities. Although, each one requires a parenthetical citation (in-text) and a note in the reference list. Also, the way you cite lyrics in your paper may be different and depends on how you listen to a particular song as well as the amount of information you put in your text. For example, if you cite a song from a CD you listened to, you may refer to the song in the following way:

An actual song citation example looks this way:

To cite a song or music in MLA, it is helpful to know information including the song title, contributor names, and production details. The templates and examples below are based on the MLA Handbook, 9th edition.

Here is how to cite songs in Chicago style:

Nevertheless, it’s still important to check out various techniques in order to make sure that you know exactly how to do everything correctly with citing music lyrics.

Here is an example of an in-text citation for a song lyric:

If you cite transcribed lyrics from a website, provide a description in the Title of Source element. The description can include the title of the song, which should be styled in quotation marks. Then provide the name of the website, publication information for the site, and the URL of the web page: