Start with the bit you’re stuck on

Where does the advice come from?

Each entry names its source and authority tier. A linked linter check may cover only part of a convention; read its example and the entry’s qualifications for the limits.

The ascending bars ahead of each entry's tier label are its standing drawn as a ladder: four steps for the four source tiers, filled up to the tier the entry's sources establish. Climbing it is evidence, never an edit: an entry rises only when a higher-tier source confirming it joins its citations.

LyricLint advisory: LyricLint's own preference, on a convention no Genius source states: the blank line between song parts, the text-hygiene checks. It shares the bottom step with community guidance, because our preference claims no more standing than unreviewed community writing.
Genius community guidance: Ordinary community voice in any venue: an unreviewed annotation, guide-page text with no staff badge, an ordinary forum post.
External reference: An authority outside Genius: a dictionary, a language academy, a platform's own documentation. It ranks below a reviewed annotation because it is authoritative about language, not about Genius.
Editor-reviewed Genius annotation: A reviewed Genius annotation with no staff among its contributors.
Genius staff guidance: Genius staff wrote or touched it: a staff-badged guide page, staff among an annotation's contributors, or a staff reply on the forum. Who wrote it decides the tier, never the venue it appears in.

What about spelling and grammar?

The workbench also uses Harper for English spelling, grammar, and style suggestions. Those suggestions come from the proofreader, so they are not listed here as Genius conventions. Read them in the context of the lyrics before applying a change.

Both or All standing in for artist names

Warning performer.collective-identifier Previewed fix

Genius staff guidance is that artist names are always written out in section headers, never combined under identifiers like “Both” or “All”. Performers singing the same lines in unison are grouped with ampersands inside one style slot, so the legend names exactly who shares them.

Convention: Group unison voices with ampersands.

Example

Flagged by this rule

[Chorus: A, <i>B</i> & <b>Both</b>]
Line

In the workbench this reads: Write out the artist names instead of “Both”.

Accepted by this rule

[Chorus: A, <i>B</i>, <b>A & B</b>]
Line

The fix

In the workbench this finding carries one control, labelled Replace with A & B. The change is contextual, so it is previewed as a diff in your document first and applies only when you confirm it.

The convention and its limits

This check detects the pattern shown above. An accepted example passes this check; it is not a review of the whole transcription.

Sources

The sources cited by this check:

Two "Correct" Methods for Identifying Artists in Section Headers verified 2026-08-12 Staff answer: artist names are written out, never combined under Both or All

Use song part headers verified 2026-08-17 Section headers, performer legends, and four differentiation styles

Check a transcription in the workbench

Put what you hear into words.