The COTODAMA Lyric Speaker displays animated song lyrics making this one of the most original speakers on the market. It has a translucent build that allows the lyrics to be shown around the actual speaker portions of the device thanks to the embedded screen, and was built by COTODAMA with a technology called Lyric Sync, which is capable of displaying the lyrics from over 2 million different songs thanks to a partnership with SyncPower which operates Japan’s largest lyrics database – PetitLyrics. More song lyrics will also continually be added over time, so even if the lyrics to your favorite songs aren’t already supported there is a good chance they will be in the future at some point.
To get the lyrics to actually display on the speaker’s screen you connect it to the COTODAMA companion application which links to the speaker over a Wi-Fi network, and from there you can begin streaming music from a number of different services, with the most popular services being supported including Google Play Music, Deezer, Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, and YouTube. Other services as supported as well, such as Recochoku, Utapass, AWA, and KKBOX.
More than just displaying song lyrics on the screen during playback, the speaker also analyzes the song that’s playing for different elements like mood and structure, which allows it to pick things like font that will be specific to each song. This makes each song a somewhat unique experience as the animations will vary. In addition to changing fonts, the speaker will also alter the motion of the fonts. The speaker features two coaxial drone cone loudspeakers wrapped in a dual passive radiator enclosure, a 22-inch transparent LCD to display the animated lyrics, it supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless network frequencies, and it weighs about 11.5kg. It only comes in black, and it is available for purchase in the U.S., UK, and Europe, though it comes at a high price for those interested as it will cost $4,500, £4,320, or €5,040 respectively. It’s also available in Hong Kong and Japan but prices were not listed for these regions. While the price is steep, the speaker is handcrafted in Japan and there are only 15 units made every month, making these somewhat limited in their availability.