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02/14/2017
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Darryl Ballantyne shares his insights for 2017

Founder and CEO of LyricFind also provided insights regarding the release of a new service called LyricMerch later this year.

The world’s leading legal lyrics licensing company, LyricFind, provides valuable lyrics services through their archive of millions of lyrics for licensing or other services to more than 100 countries around the globe.

The founder and CEO of LyricFind, Darryl Ballantyne, is heavily involved in many aspects of the company’s operations and plays a significant role in growing the company into the biggest legal lyrics licensing service on an international scale since its official launch in 2004. As LyricFind is the pivot of digital lyrics licensing, Darryl Ballantyne has shared with us about his predictions and plans for 2017.

1. What are the trends that you see happening in the music landscape for 2017?

Darryl Ballantyne: Outside of lyrics, I think consolidation will be a major trend in 2017, in two major areas: rights management and streaming services. Some of the smaller services are just hanging around, and will be ripe for the picking (and probably at discounted prices). There are also a ridiculous number of rights management companies in the marketplace now (which is a much-needed area), but there isn’t room for all of them to survive. You’ll start to see more and more M&A activity here, both from competitors merging and large services bringing expertise in-house in order to control the end-to-end royalty management.

I also think the trend of artists breaking from labels and signing their own exclusives (like Frank Ocean) will intensify throughout the year, though I expect we’ll hit the limit on that in the later part of the year as services start to question the overall value of that type of arms race.

2. What can we expect from the company in 2017?

Darryl Ballantyne: In 2017, LyricFind will launch LyricMerch, an on-demand printing service for lyrics merchandise. The service will allow users to design their own shirt, coffee mug, phone case, and more using any line from millions of licensed lyrics – and get it made and shipped directly to them.

Best of all, music publishers and songwriters will see a substantial royalty from the service, creating a brand new revenue stream for them. We’ll also continue to expand our international licensing and content, along with new languages, and introduce a few other new products as well.

3. What will you be busy with in 2017?

Darryl Ballantyne: Aside from launching LyricMerch and other products, we’ll be continuing to build the database and expand internationally, as well as expanding the team to process more content, more languages, and more rights than ever before. And of course, planning for 2018 – but those plans will remain secret for now!