Lyrics licensing platform LyricFind will be launching a lyrics merchandising service at the end of the first quarter of 2017.
The new unit will harness LyricFind’s existing relations with rights holders to license lyrics to third parties for use on a range of products including t-shirts, mugs and phone cases.
“Lyrics merchandising is something we are going to go gung-ho with over the next few months,” LyricFind CEO Daryl Ballantyne told Music Week. “The idea to take any line from any song and get that printed on custom-made merchandising. We are looking at all kinds of products.”
Ballantyne said that in the past few months the Toronto-based company has been busy talking to music publishers, artists and management companies to bring them on board. “We have rounded all the licensing agreements for it and got amazing responses from publishers, artists and artist management and from our clients who will sell through this channel and get revenue from these lyrics.”
The service, he added, will provide a legal response to the proliferation of unlicensed merchandising with lyrics. LyricFind is in the process of finalising a list of fulfillment partners, who will be announced at the beginning of 2017. “We hear from publishers that there is a lot of stuff out there on E-bay or on the side of the road with Marley lyrics of Stones lyrics,” explains Ballantyne. “There is no way to license that activity and what we are doing is monetising products [with lyrics] but we do it in a licensed way that will compensate the rights holders. We are using the same strategy that we had done with lyrics sites. We are giving people a viable option as to where to go to find that."
Ballantyne also explained that the revenue streams will flow from the licensed partners to LyricFind, which will then be handling all the billing and payments. “After we pay the cost of production and the shipping, the revenues will be shared between us, the publisher and the site or service that generates the sale,” says Ballantyne. He anticipates that the business will generate revenues in the million in the first years, but sees the market evolving into an eight-figure revenue stream in the long term.
