Most lyric databases fan-generated, often not accurate
By DAILY PRESS STAFF
CLOVERFIELD BLVD ARTISTdirect, Inc., a leading Internet resource for music and entertainment news, has entered into a licensing partnership with Universal Music Publishing Group, the world’s leading global music publishing company, and EMI Music Publishing for rights to the lyrics of some their most popular songs.
Through the deal, which was announced on Monday, lyrics to Universal and EMI songs will be featured in a new interactive lyrics section launching this fall on ARTISTdirect.com, which is based in Santa Monica.
Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.
The licensing partnership opens the vaults of the publisher powerhouses to give ARTISTdirect fans for the first time easy access to legal, accurate song lyrics from top music acts past and present from current chart toppers to beloved classics.
Artists featured include Prince, Barry Manilow, 50 Cent, Mariah Carey, U2 and Elton John.
Most lyric databases are fan-generated and often not 100 percent accurate.
“Universal Music Publishing Group has an amazing catalog of award-winning music and we are privileged to be able to provide the words to songs that have so profoundly impacted our culture,” said Dimitri Villard, interim CEO of ARTISTdirect. “This partnership helps create one of the largest repositories for official lyrics as written by the songwrit-ers.”
The upcoming launch of the new lyrics pages fortify ARTISTdirect as one of the best destinations for music fans looking for information, news and entertainment on every musical act in a multitude of genres, Villard said.
Users will be able to access layers of interactive features and contextually relevant music content alongside the lyrics such as up-to-the-minute artist news, streaming music and videos as well as advanced search functionality.
Song lyrics will be searchable and viewable in a text format and will provide music fans with accurate song verses for a wide variety of music genres including hip-hop, indie rock, pop, jazz, blues and more.
“Our search for new revenue opportunities for our songwriters and artists continues and this deal marks another positive step in monetizing the legal use of lyrics online,” said David Renzer, chairman & CEO, Universal Music Publishing Group. “We are happy to partner with ARTISTdirect for this new service.”
ARTISTdirect provides 24/7 in-depth coverage of music and entertainment news with behind-the-scenes interviews, reviews and exclusive music festival information with a full-time editorial staff dedicated to keeping fans in-the-know.
Additionally, ARTISTdirect hosts a variety of music videos and video channels featuring content from ManiaTV, GoDigital, Comedy-Time, Suretone Records, Celebrities.com and the ARTISTdirect Archives amongst others.
“This added lyrics feature also enables ARTISTdirect to further solidify the band-fan relationship with another layer of connectivity with our community,” Villard said.
ArtistDirect also owns MediaDefender, an anti-piracy firm used by the recording industry to track down the IP addresses of file-swappers for its legal campaign against illegal file-sharing.
The company went through a management shake-up in March that saw both its non-executive chairman and interim chief executive step down.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 20, 2008. Read the original PDF.