US lyrics platform LyricFind on 22 July announced that it had expanded its operations in South Africa and India, which includes opening new offices.

LyricFind will be offering lyrics in 10 South African languages.
The company provides its partners with a catalogue of fully licensed lyrics from major music companies and more than 6 000 publishers around the world including music platforms such as Deezer, YouTube Music and Google, among others.

The platform’s premium reporting infrastructure is also built to track and pay royalties to songwriters and rights holders on a song-by-song and territory-by-territory basis.

The company says the expansion is part of its continued commitment to meeting international market needs as demand for lyrics in different languages continues to grow.

LyricFind’s new team in Johannesburg will cover 10 of South Africa's official languages, which include Afrikaans, Zulu, Sotho, Xhosa, Tsonga, Venda, Tswana, Northern Sotho, Swati and Ndebele. The company says it’s working on including other African languages later this year.

In India, the team will be focused on extensive charts and a back catalogue in Hindi and Marathi, with more regional languages being added later this year.

Two new remote teams, armed with the knowledge of their local music scenes, will work to gather, edit and timestamp lyrics in their territories’ respective spoken languages. By investing in local teams in these regions, LyricFind says it’s doubling down on its commitment to offering a top service.

“Music consumption across Africa and Asia is growing rapidly, and lyrics have a powerful part to play in this growth,” LyricFind CEO Darryl Ballantyne said. “We’re excited to add these 10 languages, and counting, to our offerings.

“We’re committed to offering high-quality, vetted, licensed lyrics to service providers, platforms and fans around the world, and we’ve found the best way to do that is to invest in local organisations that have the right expertise to provide the level of service our partners expect.”