Cotodama teams up with mastermind Japan for visually stunning lyric speaker

The recent outcome of a partnership between two Japanese heavyweight tech companies Cotodama and mastermind Japan, is the Lyric Speaker Canvas, a minimalist centerpiece speaker that displays song lyrics like an art exhibit.

Almost exactly one year ago, Diplo released a hybrid house and techno track with SIDEPIECE called ‘On My Mind.” Once this track started taking over dance floors as Fisher’s ‘Losing It’ did the year before, crowds would shriek out the lyrics, “You stay on my mind...think about you all the time.” But once the song got past that line, it seemed that most people did something akin to “Yeah yeah yeah...zhhhh zhhh zhh” because they didn’t know the lyrics. If they had the Lyric Speaker Canvas, they would be able to see the words in real-time and keep singing them at the top of their lungs.

Designed to look like two records leaning against each other, the Lyric Speaker Canvas can fit anywhere from a bookshelf to between paintings to the edge of a countertop in a restaurant. If the speaker is placed near a wall, the rear-reflection method helps amplify the sound.

Instead of highlighting lyrics rolling down a line like an old-fashioned karaoke bar, the Lyric Speaker Canvas puts on a show for every single song. It even switches how the words are presented each time a new style of music is played. For softer songs, the words may gently float on and off the screen in a handwritten font. For electronic songs like ‘On My Mind,’ chunky lyrics may appear and disappear in a hyper visualized style to fit the beat.