Adding lyrics to Google's search results and within Google Play Music, LyricFind now provides licensing for lyrics displayed in Google's search results, as well as in the music app.

"It's all based on usage", Ballantyne told Billboard.

LYRICFIND's partnership with GOOGLE allows it to collect new royalties for songwriters and rightsholders, and benefits music fans who engage more easily than ever with lyrics. "The more it's viewed, the more publishers get paid".

All you need to do to see lyrics is search for the name of the song followed by "lyrics" on Google. It'll also improve lyrics within Google Play Music, the company's streaming service, a lesser-known, web-based competitor to Spotify and Apple Music. Founded in 2004, the company began by recruiting publishers and then persuading sites to pay up.

The rise in unlicensed lyric sites led The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) to send a take-down notice in 2013 to 50 profitable lyric sites that lacked a license. LyricFind expects to expand its service to 200 countries over the next year, Ballantyne projects.

This is potentially bad news for licensed lyric sites such as AZLyrics.com, which has long dominated search results, and the unlicensed sites as well.