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Business News Deals Digital Labels & Publishers Top Stories
Rap Genius signs licensing deal with Sony/ATV
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 15 November 2013
Lyric website-slash-online-community Rap Genius has signed a licensing deal with the world’s biggest music publisher Sony/ATV.
The news is timed well, coming shortly after the US National Music Publishers’ Association named the site the “worst offender” for publishing lyrics without permission. Though it also seems to go against co-founder Ilan Zechory’s apparent claim earlier this week that his company was basically doing just fine without licenses.
I suppose he did also say he was looking forward to talking to the angry music publishers. But that too was misleading, because it seems Zechory was already in cahoots with some of the publishing sector. In fact, according to Billboard, this deal was done “earlier this year” and the site is now looking to do more deals with publishers that will allow it to post lyrics without the threat of takedown notices.
Presumably the $15 million in funding it picked up last year will help with paying for that.
