LyricFind CEO Reflects on the Company’s 20th Anniversary
LyricFind, the trusted source for lyrics and data licensing, kicked off the celebration of its 20th anniversary with a “diamond” achievement: there are now over 10 million unique songs in its fully licensed lyrics database.
This milestone is the perfect marker to represent the company’s growth over the past two decades to become the world leader in lyric monetization, all while remaining completely independent with zero outside funding.
Since signing the first-ever lyric licensing deal with EMI Music Publishing (now part of Sony Music Publishing) in 2005, LyricFind has grown its product suite into the global premier provider of lyric data, sync, and translations, with innovative solutions for data analysis and video creation.
To help celebrate the big 2–0, we connected with Darryl Ballantyne, Co-Founder and CEO of LyricFind, to get an update on what’s new.
The interview was a real treat, as Ballantyne shared his thoughts on the music business, new partnerships, the future of lyric licensing, and much more.
1. What was the jumping-off point to start a lyric licensing business?
Darryl Ballantyne: It all started at the University of Waterloo with my friends and co-founders Mohamed Moutadayne (CTO) and Chris Book (Board of Directors). It was the early days of digital music, and Chris was trying to figure out the name of a song based on the lyrics — but couldn’t find anywhere to search! We launched the first version of LyricFind as a consumer website in 2000, but we quickly took the lyrics down as we realized the complexity of lyric licensing.
Then in 2003, I ended up speaking as a student representative at Canadian Music Week, where I met Ted Cohen. He helped me out in more ways than I can count, including hiring me to intern for him at EMI and vouching for us (as part of our Board of Directors) to get our first lyric licenses. From that experience, we were able to relaunch LyricFind as a lyric licensing business, and here we are 20 years later.
2. LyricFind has sealed a number of new partnerships in the last year — like GEMA in Germany, and Tuned Global for tech integration. There was also the acquisition of Rotor Videos. Are we going to see more deals or new products in 2024?
Darryl Ballantyne: Absolutely! We are always eager to partner with companies whose goals and values align with ours. The Rotor Videos acquisition was a big one for us, as we share a belief that video content plays a crucial role in music promotion and the music experience. Together, we’re providing record labels, distributors, and artists, particularly independent ones, with powerful tools to create their own high-quality videos.
Our goal is to empower them to own their video content online and earn the royalties, exposure, and fan engagement — instead of a random person who uploaded their content first. The acquisition enhanced our video offering significantly, with robust tools to create Spotify Canvases, Apple Music Album Motion, and several other video types. We’ll have a number of major partnerships on the video front coming out this year, plus new automotive partners, and more…
3. How does LyricFind differentiate itself from other companies in the lyric licensing marketplace?
Darryl Ballantyne: Aside from being the first and longest serving company in the business, we pride ourselves on our quality — quality of lyrics, quality of translations, quality of licensing, quality of administration. We want to do things the right way with respect to writer and publisher rights, and creating the best experience for music fans. Critically, we also don’t charge artists and publishers for distribution of their lyrics, and use of our tools — we’re here to serve those people, not prey on them.
LyricFind actually signed the first-ever lyric licensing deal back in 2005 with EMI Music Publishing (which is now part of Sony Music Publishing). Today, we have over 20 years of growth under our belt, with over 100 employees, partnerships with over 50,000 publishers, and a worldwide client list including top music platforms such as TikTok Music, Amazon Music, Google, Xperi, YouTube Music, Pandora, Deezer, and more.
Beyond that, we’ve branched out with LyricIQ, a set of innovative data analysis and filtering tools, and as mentioned before, Videos by LyricFind, a suite of video solutions that generate high quality content in seconds.
This video creation tool is now integrated into distributors like CD Baby, giving artists access to all kinds of customized visuals.
4. How do you see the business of lyric licensing / lyric data evolving over the next 5…. 10… years?
Darryl Ballantyne: I can see a few significant trends. For one, as streaming platforms continue to remain at the forefront of the industry, the demand for accurate, synchronized lyrics will grow. As well, the demand will expand beyond streaming into gaming, social media, fitness apps, and more, which will create many new revenue opportunities.
I expect that AI and machine learning will play a crucial role in satisfying those markets, by offering new and improved tools to help with fast and accurate lyric transcription and synchronization at greater scale. I also forecast that interactive lyric features, like synced lyric translations and word-by-word synchronization, will become more prevalent.
We’ll also see lyrics used a lot more behind the scenes, to fuel recommendations, search, and content filtration. Features like those will reach wider audiences and ultimately drive deeper engagement.
5. What are your thoughts on the music streaming business as a whole these days? What’s working, what needs changing/fixing?
Darryl Ballantyne :Music streaming is the logical evolution from where digital music started in the early 2000s and earlier — easy access to nearly the entire history of recorded music, but now in a way that is easy to use, and doesn’t require insanely big hard drives. Where it can improve, and where lyrics can help, is in forging a bond between listeners and artists on a global scale. Things like translations open up massive new markets for artists, where fans who don’t speak their language can understand their music and create a connection.
Additionally, a lot of people just throw on a playlist in the background while they’re doing something else, and sometimes all they retain is one lyric that might not be the title of the song. With enhanced lyric data, we can help them find that song again and engage with it and its artist more. Not only that, but I fell in love with many artists back in the day while listening to their albums for the first time, following along with the lyrics in the CD booklet. We’re recreating that experience on streaming services with synced lyric displays and translations, which I believe will do wonders for up-and-coming artists today and their fan relationships.
6. You’re celebrating a 20th anniversary this year. Thoughts on a notable milestone… where you’ve been, where you’re going for the next 20?
Darryl Ballantyne :It’s been an absolutely incredible ride. When I was at EMI, it was part of my school’s co-op program, so in many ways, LyricFind is my first and only “real” job. We’ve also been witness to countless changes in the industry, and the rollercoaster ride for everyone in the past 20 years.
It makes me so proud to be able to say that, and I also get to work with my friends every day. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge all the people who got us here; we wouldn’t have survived without them.
There are so many people in our history who have stepped in to stop an existential threat, and have chosen to act in our favor — even when they were taking personal risks to do so. It’s impossible to understate how important those decisions were, and how fortunate we’ve been to have had the right people making them. I don’t think you can get to 20 years without that luck — we truly owe them everything!
As for the next 20 years, I’m just excited to see what the future holds.
The music industry has been through so many twists and turns, and I’m always excited to see what will catch on next. I’ve personally been rejuvenated by the growth and new products we’ve developed over the last few years, and the new growth and markets ahead of us — whether through our own products or more acquisitions.
Regardless, lyrics will always be at the core of music, and we are going to make sure we stay adaptable so that artists never miss out on the opportunities they generate.
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