From now on, whenever you search lyrics for any particular song in Google, you’ll see the lyrics appear in the search results. This feature is a part of Google’s partnership with LyricFind, the world’s largest lyric licensing service to display song lyrics in its search results. This multi-year licensing deal will be the brand new source of revenue for musicians and publishers.
Albeit the service has been rolled out in the US yesterday, the deal reportedly covers international licensing as well. While the deal terms weren’t disclosed, Darryl Ballantyne, CEO and co-founder of LyricFind considers it as “a significant revenue stream” that could rise to millions for songwriters and music publishers.
“It’s all based on usage,” Ballantyne said while speaking with Billboard. “Royalties are paid based on the number of times a lyric is viewed. The more it’s viewed, the more publishers get paid.”
So, if you need the lyrics for any new song, you no longer have to go through any third party site. However, this is definitely a bad news for those unlicensed sites for lyrics as well as for licensed lyrics sites like AZLyrics.com. Google will also profit from the partnership as every snippet card in the search results gets a link to the full lyrics on Google Play where you can start a free radio station or buy the song.
