Here's a solution for all of those baby-boomers who can't quite remember the lyrics to their favorite songs. On Tuesday, Yahoo Music and Gracenote announced that they have struck a new licensing deal that will enable Yahoo Music customers to search for and locate lyrics in hundreds of thousands of songs.
The companies claim that the agreement will make Yahoo Music the first mass-market online service to offer licensed song lyrics. No financial terms were disclosed by the companies.
"Finally," said Ian Rogers, general manager of Yahoo Music, "a free, legal, and definitive way to settle a bet with the guy sitting next to you at the bar who is certain the Ramones' most famous anthem declares, 'I wanna piece of bacon.'"
Richer Music Experience?
The lyrics library will include material from nearly 100 music publishers, including the five largest: BMG Music Publishing, EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, and Warner/Chappell Music.
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Gracenote is probably more familiar to digital music collectors as the former CDDB, used by several software tools to identify the tracks on audio CDs when inserted into a computer. The company now provides a wide range of music data services, including lyrics, artist biographies, media-monitoring services, playlist creation, and so on.
Under the terms of the new arrangement, Gracenote will give Yahoo Music users the ability to search quickly for lyrics; the results will have links to tracks in the Yahoo Music service. Users also will be able to browse all of the lyrics by a particular artist, and can see the lyrics for the most popular contemporary songs. Over time, Yahoo will add the lyrics to its search index, enabling users to find lyrics from any Yahoo search box.
Lyrics a Popular Search
According to Craig Palmer, the president and chief executive of Gracenote, searches for song lyrics are consistently in the top 10 searches on the Internet.
"With Gracenote and Yahoo," Palmer said, "consumers will have access to the largest database Relevant Products/Services of high-quality lyrics linked directly to the rich album and artist content available throughout Yahoo Music."
As with so many enhanced Web services these days, the driving force behind the new arrangement is the effort to create new advertising possibilities. According to some estimates, annual worldwide music publishing revenues total $4 billion. Providing users with access to the lyrics for all that music could generate as much as $10 million per year in additional advertising revenues.
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