Searching for lyrics seems to be the one thing on the internet that hasn’t evolved since 2003. Now as it was then, one would have to wade through countless dicey looking sites with questionable results until now, with our overlord Google inking a deal to display full song lyrics in the search results. And no, it wasn’t a matter of simple copy and pasting.
Google has struck what is sure to shape up to be a landmark deal with lyric website LyricFind. Already, LyricFind held the rights from 400 different publishing companies including all the major labels. They use a quality-controlled and strictly vetted database of lyrics and report back to publishers with royalties.
Launching overnight in the US, the service is up and running. Simply search the artist and song name, followed by ‘lyrics’ and they’ll appear. The lyrics are also hosted on Google Play, where users can listen to the song while they sing along verbatim, essentially making you the ~coolest~ person in the room.
As it turns out, LyricFind is actually one of the few lyric sites out there that has all the proper paperwork. Many simply don’t have the licences needed to display lyrics legally.
In fact, LyricFind CEO Darryl Ballantyne the deal will see rise to “a significant revenue stream” for artists and publishers:
“I can’t get into the rates, but we expect it to be millions of dollars generated for publishers and songwriters as a result of this. It’s all based on usage. Royalties are paid based on the number of times a lyric is viewed. The more it’s viewed, the more publishers get paid.”
Still, it’s hard not to feel somewhat nostalgic for shared experiences like this:
