LyricFind, the trusted source for lyrics and data licensing, is kicking 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.
Founded in 2004 by CEO Darryl Ballantyne, CTO Mohamed Moutadayne, and Board of Directors member Chris Book, LyricFind grew out of conversations in the University of Waterloo dorms about their desire to solve the problem of identifying music from lyrics and finding complete and accurate lyrics online. In those early days of digital music, no one else saw the value in aggregating rights and content for the use of lyrics online. Starting with the first-ever lyric licensing deal with EMI Music Publishing (now part of Sony Music Publishing) in 2005, and signing its first major client, Real Networks, in the following year, LyricFind has grown its product suite to the global premier provider of lyric data, sync, and translations, with innovative solutions for data analysis and video creation. Since day one, they have ensured that songwriters and lyric rights-holders were properly paid for their work, distributing millions of dollars in lyric royalties every year.
“When we founded LyricFind in 2004, we were just a group of guys hoping we could get people paid for their lyrics. But before long, it transformed into something so much greater - more content, more countries, more licenses, more everything!” said Ballantyne. “LyricFind has grown to be the global lyric partner of choice, transforming our vision into value. With product expansions, team expansions, and an everlasting focus on making sustainable contributions to the music industry, we have high hopes for our future.”
“As we reflect on the past 20 years, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to our many valued customers, music publishers, partners, friends, and family for their trust, support, and continued commitment to LyricFind,” said Moutadayne. “We pride ourselves on being a diverse company in the most multicultural city in the world, which gives us a huge advantage in our business. We would not be here without everyone’s contributions!”
Today, LyricFind continues to expand its rights, content, product, and team, 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.
Key company milestones include:
- Acquiring Gracenote’s lyric service, and expanding to New York City, in 2013
- Teaming with Billboard in 2015 to launch the LyricFind U.S. and LyricFind Global charts
- Partnering with The Recording Academy in 2016 to license lyrics for the Grammys
- Integration with Google to add lyrics to search in 2016
- Launching the LyricIQ service in 2020
- Crossing 100 global team members in 2021
- Launching the Lyric Videos product in 2021
- Acquiring Rotor Videos in 2023 to expand the capabilities of the Lyric Videos product, including their team in Belfast and other parts of Europe
- Passing 1 million lyric translations in 2023
- Passing 1 million word-by-word synced songs in 2024
