Lyrics are the most popular and most widely searched music content on the Internet. When listeners bought physical albums, finding lyrics wasn’t a problem; they were usually printed on the inside of the CD, cassette or record insert. But since the dawn of the digital download, the lyric has been left behind. One Canadian company is looking to change that. Sure, you can Google “lyrics” or find YouTube videos of lyrics with the song playing in the background. However, this content is not produced by the actual music publisher. It may or may not be accurate, but even when it is, it’s definitely not legal.
In a time when technology is often used for poaching music, LyricFind has sought to restore a most proprietary attribute of song. Its words.
Established in 2004, the Toronto-based company is the brainchild of University of Waterloo classmates Darryl Ballantyne and Mohamed Moutadayne. Through partnerships with music industry organizations like the Recording Academy and Billboard, in addition to licensing agreements with various major labels including Universal, Warner/Chappell and Sony/ATV, LyricFind has achieved a means of developing legal lyric solutions for the web.
Ballantyne joined Alan and Michael on the big show.
LyricFind has found success offering three distinct services to anyone who provides music online.
Source: lyricfind.com
Display
On sites like Google and Microsoft Bing, users will see a clear, authentic presentation of a song’s lyrics. In the back end, LyricFind builds in SEO, which in turn drives more users to the site and increases engagement with current users. Try it – Google the lyrics for your favourite song and a clean HTML document will appear. You can guarantee that LyricFind will be listed as the source.
Synchronization
Through this service, users of streaming services are able to view lyrics line by line in time to their song of choice. LyricFind provides this service on platforms like Deezer, HTC, SoundHound and Plex:
Synchronizing lyrics with music creates a more immersive and attractive lyrics experience that enhances user experience as well as music discovery. Displaying only the current line allows for better integration and allows the user to enjoy the lyrics comfortably.
Search
In it’s most basic form, this service provides the end user with the full song and name for the one that goes like….
You know the drill. There’s a lyric spinning around in your head and you just can’t remember what the actual song is. Building on this simple premise, LyricFind can also provide sites with the ability to produce playlists based on keywords. The user will receive a curated catalogue of songs with a specified word or phrase. One of the company’s biggest assets for this area of the business is Chief Revenue Officer Will Mills. Prior to joining LyricFind, Mills was a senior executive with Shazam for 10 years overseeing a period of huge growth to one billion. Mills currently leads global business strategy for LyricFind.
As a company, LyricFind is poised to do great things for music listeners, while maintaining a relationship based on integrity and authenticity with artists and music publishers. The company’s mandate is to make the words of our favourite songs accessible through ensuring that the owners of the content and copyrights are paid the appropriate royalties.
LyricFind is a true Canadian start-up success story. What began as an idea dreamed up by two math degree university buddies has grown into a global licensing and database service for the music industry, proving that once in a while art and technology can live happily ever after; the end.