Glossary

Teleprompter

Also called: prompter, autocue

What is teleprompter?

A display that shows text scrolling at reading speed so a performer can read it while looking straight ahead. In music production it shows lyrics near the microphone instead of a script near a camera.

The point of a prompter is posture as much as memory. Because the text sits at eye level, the performer keeps their head up, which for a singer means staying on the microphone's axis and keeping the tone consistent.

A studio prompter differs from a broadcast one in how it is paced: a script scrolls at a set words-per-minute rate, while lyrics need to follow the song's own timeline.