Gracenote Agrees To Deal to Publish Lyrics on the Web By NICK WINGFIELD and ETHAN SMITH Wall Street Journal
July 14, 2006; Page A10 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115283681180606417.html?mod=hps_us_at_glance_mm Technology company Gracenote Inc. has reached an agreement with dozens of music publishers that will allow it to offer digital copies of more than one million song lyrics over the Internet, paving the way for companies that use Gracenote's services like Apple Computer Inc. to offer lyrics with song downloads. The deal -- the most comprehensive effort yet to offer lyrics legally on the Web -- is also a likely prelude to legal action by music publishers against a multitude of Web sites that post lyrics without permission from copyright holders. Such a move would parallel past efforts by recording companies to sue providers and users of Internet file-sharing software for swapping songs, while also licensing songs to online music retailers like Apple's iTunes Music Store. Record labels generally own rights to the recordings of songs, while music publishers -- some of which are owned by the same parent companies as the labels -- usually control the underlying melody and lyrics for songs. The agreement between closely held Gracenote, of Emeryville, Calif., and Bertelsmann AG's BMG Music Publishing, Vivendi Universal SA's Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony Corp.'s Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Peermusic and dozens of smaller publishers will allow Gracenote to offer song lyrics through digital music retailers, Internet search engines and other potential partners. Gracenote Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing Jim Hollingsworth said it will be up to Gracenote's partners whether to charge consumers extra for song lyrics or to offer them for free as part of song and album sales. Gracenote is best known for operating a large online database that iTunes and other programs tap to automatically label music with artist, song title and other information when users are copying CDs onto their personal computers. The company didn't disclose financial terms of its deal with music publishers. Unauthorized copies of lyrics are easily accessible for free through search engines on sites that compile lyrics and profit by selling advertising. "Unlicensed reproduction has been a sore point," said Ralph Peer II, chairman and chief executive of Peermusic, a large independent music publisher. "But it has certainly gotten to be a more serious sore point as commercial sites have grown to make their income off these lyrics." ================================================= George Antunes Voice (713) 743-3923 Associate Professor Fax (713) 743-3927 Political Science Internet: antunes at uh dot edu University of Houston Houston, TX 77204-3011 Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
