Lyric websites are the latest to come under attack by artists who claim that some services do not fairly compensate artists, among other charges.
David Lowery of Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven has been a vocal critic of music streaming services like Pandora and Spotify due to compensation issues, but he is now bringing lyric websites into the discussion. According to Consequence of Sound, Lowery is a researcher at the University of Georgia and did a study pointing out 50 “undesirable” lyric sites, which he explains says are ignored for their copyright infringement.
Based on the popularity of lyric searches, it is possible that unlike the sound recording business, the lyric business may be more valuable in the Internet age.
RapGenius posted about the conflict and listed the 50 websites that were issued a take-down notice by the National Music Publishers Association. These sites were suspected by Lowery of not having publishing licenses for lyrics and the notices demand that the licenses are obtained or that the sites remove copyrighted material completely.