LyricFind

LyricFind
Private
Industry Digital music
Founders Darryl Ballantyne, Mohamed Moutadayne, Chris Book
Headquarters Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Areas served
 100+ countries
Products Licensed and monetized lyric display and streaming
Website LyricFind.com

LyricFind is a Canadian lyrics licensing company founded in 2004.[1] In early 2012 LyricFind licensed the global rights for song lyrics from EMI Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), Warner/Chappell Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing,[1] and Kobalt Music Group,[1] with LyricFind later becoming the sole third party "to administer future licenses for lyrics controlled" by UMPG.[2] On October 27, 2015, LyricFind launched two new weekly charts on Billboard to rank the top trending lyric searches.[3][4] In January 2016, LyricFind announced it had partnered with The Recording Academy on a number of initiatives, including the licensing of lyric displays for Grammy websites.[5] LyricFind's database of lyrics is currently available for licensing in around 100 countries with around 4,000 music publishers,[6] with clients such as Amazon, Deezer, Shazam,[7] Microsoft Bing,[1] Pandora, MetroLyrics,[8] and SongMeanings, among others.[9]

History

Founding and early years (2004-12)

LyricFind was founded in Toronto, Ontario[9] by three Canadian college students in 2004.[1] The company was formed as a legal lyrics licensor, primarily licensing its catalogue to websites.[1] Co-founder Darryl Ballantyne took on the role of chief executive officer (CEO), while co-founder Mohamed Moutadayne serves as chief technology officer (CTO).[6] Ted Cohen was later appointed to the board of directors,[10] and Andrew Stess joined the board in 2006.[11] By 2010, LyricFind had developed two apps for mobile phones, dubbed Lyrics Lite and Lyrics Pro.[9] The LyricFind Pro and LyricFind Lite for iPhone were reviewed by MacWorld in 2010, earning praise for functionality but criticism for a limited catalogue of licensed lyrics.[12]

LyricFind had signed licensing agreements with 2,700 music publishers in the United States by early 2012, with its services also being used by websites such as Slacker, Shazam, Microsoft Bing,[1] Lyrics.com, mSpot, LyricsFreak.com, LyricsMods.com, and SongMeanings.[9] On February 2, 2012, LyricFind announced it had signed the global rights for song lyrics from EMI Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner/Chappell Music Publishing and Sony/ATV Music Publishing, all major publishers.[1] Kobalt Music Group was also added to the LyricFind catalogue.[1]

Acquisitions (2013-14)

In January 2013, LyricFind acquired Gracenote's lyrics licensing business, merging it with its own.[13] Larry Marcus of Gracenote and WaldenVC[14] also invested and joined LyricFind as an adviser.[13] LyricFind introduced software that synchronized lyric delivery in 2013.[7] Deezer was an early adopter of the feature[7] in late 2014, offering "sing-a-long" or "score" mode.[15] By the spring of 2014, LyricFind had licenses from 3,000 music publishers worldwide.[16] LyricFind teamed up with the website BandPage in March 2014, combining aspects of their software.[17] SongMeanings was the first website to employ the integration, with other adopters to follow.[17][16] On May 1, 2014, LyricFind signed on to be the sole third party "to administer future licenses for lyrics controlled" by Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG).[2] Under the deal, UMPG songwriters receive a share of the revenues generated by LyricFind.[18]

Throughout 2013 and 2014, LyricFind worked with the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) to pursue websites illegally hosting lyrics, pressuring them legally to either change their business models or be shut down. Stated the president of the NMPA in May 2014, "through its antipiracy program, NMPA has sent takedown notices to over 300 unlicensed lyrics sites and licensed over three dozen. LyricFind has been instrumental in helping infringing sites obtain licenses and continue operating." LyricFind clients at the time included Deezer, Amazon, iHeartRadio, HTC, Shazam, SoundHound, and Bing, among others.[7]

Recent developments (2015-16)

By April 2015, LyricFind supported six languages, with more to be added that year.[19][20] LyricFind opened a new office in New York in May 2015.[21] In August 2015, LyricFind announced it was expanding into China with the digital music distribution company R2G acting as their regional agent. R2G was part of China Music Corporation. At that point, LyricFind had been licensed by around 4,000 publishers.[22] On October 27, 2015, LyricFind launched two new weekly charts on Billboard. Titled LyricFind U.S. and LyricFind Global, both charts used LyricFind's traffic data to rank the top trending lyric searches.[3][4]

The company added the "complete worldwide catalogue of rights" from Downtown Music Publishing to its catalogue in January 2016.[23] Also in January 2016, LyricFind announced it had partnered with The Recording Academy on a number of initiatives, including the licensing of lyric displays for Grammy websites leading up the event in February 2016.[5]

Overview

LyricFind's database of lyrics is currently available for licensing in around 100 countries.[6] According to the company, it offers three primary services: lyric display to spread lyrics online, lyric search using keywords, and lyric synchronization to allow lyrics to play in time to music. The lyric synchronization is used in services such as Deezer, HTC, Shazam, SoundHound, and Plex.[8]

LyricFind had licensing deals with around 4,000 music publishers by 2016, including EMI Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner/Chappell Music Publishing, and Sony/ATV Music Publishing. LyricFind "tracks, reports, and pays royalties to those publishers on a song-by-song and territory-by-territory basis."[6] Others inlcude Kobalt Music Group, with LyricFind also the exclusive third-party lyrics licensor for Universal Music Publishing Group. To aggregate licensing, LyricFind works also with companies such as the Harry Fox Agency in the United States, APRA/AMCOS in Australia, OSM BHD in Malaysia, CSDEM in France, APEM in Canada, COMPASS in Singapore, and Heaven11 in Russia.[6]

Further reading

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Harr, Dan (February 2, 2012). "LyricFind Signs World’s First Global Lyrics Deal". Music News Nashville. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  2. 1 2 "LyricFind Strikes Groundbreaking Lyric Rights Deal with Universal Music Publishing Group". Reuters - press release. May 20, 2014. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  3. 1 2 White, Emily (October 27, 2015). "LyricFind Debuts Exclusive Lyric Charts On Billboard.com". Billboard. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  4. 1 2 O'Kane, Josh (October 28, 2015). "Toronto's LyricFind takes its data to Billboard charts". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  5. 1 2 "LyricFind to Provide Licensed Song Lyrics to the GRAMMYs". WXTX - press release. January 22, 2016. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "Publishers and staff". LyricFind. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "The Year of the Legal Lyric: How LyricFind Tipped the Balance in 2014". LyricFind. May 7, 2014. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  8. 1 2 "Overview / Services". lyricfind.com. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Sawers, Paul (2012). "LyricFind gets the global rights for song lyrics from all four major publishers". The Next Web. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  10. ↑ "Lyricfind Welcome Ted Cohen to Board of Directors". Archived from the original on August 9, 2011.
  11. ↑ "Andrew Stess". LinkedIn. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  12. ↑ Beam, Brian (January 21, 2010). "LyricFind Pro and LyricFind Lite for iPhone". MacWorld. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  13. 1 2 "Welcoming Gracenote and Larry Marcus!". January 15, 2013. Retrieved March 14, 2014.
  14. ↑ "Larry Marcus". WaldenVC.com. Retrieved 2016-04-21.
  15. ↑ O'Brien, Chris (December 18, 2014). "Deezer partners with LyricFind to let users see words to songs as they stream". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  16. 1 2 "BandPage, LyricFind Join Forces to Turn 5 Billion Lyric Searches Into Revenue for Musicians". BandPage. March 5, 2014. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  17. 1 2 Pham, Alex (March 5, 2014). "Digital Notes: LyricFind's BandPage Integration, Audiam's $2M Raise, Aether's Smart Speaker". Billboard. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  18. ↑ Christman, Ed (May 21, 2014). "NMPA Launches Suits Against Infringing Lyric Sites". Billboard. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  19. ↑ "The State of Affairs: The Latest Music Industry News". The AU. May 1, 2015. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  20. ↑ James, Michael St. (April 2, 2015). "The Revolutionary (And Easy) Way For Songwriters To Make Money Licensing Lyrics". Performer Magazine. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  21. ↑ "LyricFind opens New York office". lyricfind.com. May 7, 2014. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  22. ↑ "LyricFind expands into China with R2G". Music Business Worldwide. August 12, 2015. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  23. ↑ "LyricFind Partnership With Downtown Music Publishing To Expand Globally". All Access Music Group. January 15, 2016. Retrieved 2016-04-25.

External links

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