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Why Should I List Lyrics on LyricFind & Genius?

 As an artist, it's essential that you at least publish your song lyrics on Musixmatch, LyricFind, and Genius. Doing so can have several benefits:

  1. It increases the number of (streaming) platforms that display your lyrics - streaming services primarily use lyrics provided by Musixmatch and LyricFind. If your lyrics are not on LyricFind, your fans on those services that exclusively use LyricFind as the source for lyrics (and that is quite a few) will not see your (time-synced) lyrics.

  2. It enhances the listening experience for your fans - many listeners enjoy reading along with the lyrics as they listen to music, helping them remember the words and sing along.

  3. It increases the discoverability of your music - listing your lyrics can help people find your songs through search engines like Google and Bing, by showing up in search results for related topics.

  4. It generates additional songwriter royalties each time your song lyrics are displayed on a service or website. Songwriter royalties are due in addition to the revenue generated from purchases and streams. Lyrics are automatically displayed on a number of streaming apps... Displaying lyrics in these apps is an easy way to boost the royalties that artists receive per stream. Lyrics can also be used in books, sheet music, and other formats, generating even more royalties.

However, some distributors don't submit lyrics to the three major lyric databases or only publish static lyrics to platforms like Musixmatch for display on Spotify. To maximize the value of your lyrics, it's important to work with platforms (or providers) that provide comprehensive and accurate (time-synced) lyrics for a wide range of digital services and applications.


THREE LEADING PROVIDERS OF SONG LYRICS

There are three major providers of licensed song lyrics in the music industry: Musixmatch.com, LyricFind.com, and Genius.com. These providers are widely used by the most popular streaming services and music platforms to provide accurate and licensed lyrics for their users. Some streaming services use both Musixmatch and LyricFind to increase the likelihood of finding lyrics for music on their service, but this is more of an exception than a rule. 

To illustrate this point, there are over 100+ online services that exclusively get lyrics from LyricFind. For example, Deezer only uses LyricFind as the source for song lyrics, while Spotify exclusively uses Musixmatch. Google uses both Musixmatch and LyricFind as a source.

Therefore, it's crucial for artists to have their (time-synced) song lyrics available on all three platforms to maximize the chances of their lyrics being displayed on various digital services and applications... and to generate songwriter royalties each time lyrics are displayed.

Some of the most popular services that display lyrics:

ServiceGeniusLyricFindMusixmatch
Amazon Alexa
Amazon Music		-YesYes
Apple MusicYesYesYes
Facebook--Yes
Deezer-Yes-
Google-YesYes
Instagram--Yes
JioSaavn--Yes
Shazam-YesYes
Spotify--Yes
Vevo--Yes
WebsitesYesYesYes
YouTube Video-Yes-

ISN'T MY MUSIC DISTRIBUTOR ALREADY TAKING CARE OF THIS?


It depends... and that is why you need to do some checking! As an artist or artist manager, it's crucial to know if and where your distributor is publishing the song lyrics and take appropriate action if more coverage is needed.

Your Distributor should have an overview showing all of the features included in the subscribed/purchased service.  Check the package to see if it includes submissions to Musixmatch, LyricFind, and/or Genius. Some Distributors offer lyrics distribution as a premium feature (extra charge).

It's worth noting that some (basic) packages may only include publishing lyrics as static text, and only the premium packages will include synced lyrics. Synced lyrics are lyrics that can be displayed line by line using timestamps (like subtitles in a movie), and will only be published if the time-synched lyrics have been provided by the artist. Additionally, some distributors may only send lyrics once, upon release, and will not process changes to the lyrics or the later addition of timestamps.

If you face challenges, then look for a certified curator that can help.

HOW DO I GET MY LYRICS ON GENIUS & LYRICFIND?

If your music distributor isn't publishing your lyrics on Genius.com and/or LyricFind.com, you can take matters into your own hands and seek out someone who can do it for you. Fiverr.com is a great resource for finding freelancers who offer this service. 

Be aware of the fact that most freelancers on Fiverr DO NOT have access to LyricFind. Submission to LyricFind requires custom software and a contract with LyricFind as Content Partner. Usually, it is Distributors who invest in building these submission tools and getting the proper agreement in place. As far as we know, Nico Zwaneveld is the only provider on Fiverr that has specialist access to LyricFind and can offer ad hoc submissions.

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