Darryl Ballantyne originally conceived LyricFind in 2000 with Mohamed Moutadayne and Chris Book at Ontario’s University of Waterloo to be the largest, most accurate destination for lyrics on the Internet. Officially launched in 2004, the company pioneered the licensed digital lyrics space, successfully negotiating the first-ever mass lyrics licensing deal with EMI Music Publishing in 2005. Since then, Darryl has grown LyricFind to be the largest legal, licensed lyrics database in the world, with millions of licensed tracks available and hundreds of lyrics sublicensing clients. But what next?

Step forward LyricMerch. The new consumer-facing lyrics service draws on LyricFind’s database of millions of lyrics and allows fans to put over one hundred thousand licensed lyrics on a wide range of clothing and household items. Just select the lines you’d like, format them as desired from an easy-to-use design interface, and the service will custom print your creation. Meanwhile, rightsholders get royalty payments for the use of their work.

“We see this as a win-win for songwriters and artists, and for fans who love their lyrics,” says Darryl Ballantyne, CEO of LyricFind. “LyricMerch also expands the income possibilities for lyrics rightsholders, helping them make the most of an asset that is growing in significance in the digital era.”

Darryl Ballantyne has attended over ten CES events during his entrepreneurial journey. But he has returned for CES 2018 to talk about how LyricMerch draws on LyricFind’s database of millions of lyrics and allows fans to put over one hundred thousand licensed lyrics on a wide range of clothing and household items. Darryl can be found working 18 hour days at the CES event promoting LyricMerch, but I managed to grab him for a few moments to talk about what he is looking forward to seeing at CES2018 and what he has learned after attending the event for over ten years.