Music Lyrics Data Company Inks AI Licensing Deals With the Big Three Publishers

Musixmatch, a lyric and music data company, has inked a series of AI-based licensing deals with Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group and Warner Chappell Music, the three major music publishers. Done on a trial basis, this will now allow Musixmatch access to the majors’ catalogs to develop AI tools, and as part of the agreement, the publishers will receive remuneration.

According to a source close to the deal, a few examples of what these AI tools could become include a large language model (LLM) for song lyrics and metadata, strictly gated and geared toward music business professionals who can use it to search through catalogs more easily.

With this, a film/tv company looking for the perfect song to license could ask for romantic songs or songs about protest from a certain time period. Other use cases for this type of technology could be analysis of trends in culture, like, asking “Why are love songs in decline over the last few decades?” or “What consumer brands were most frequently referenced in song lyrics last year?”

Musixmatch might also use these trial licenses to develop AI tools for financial analysis and reporting to track the performance of a catalog over time. Prompts could include something like, “Show me my earnings in the U.S. on all streaming services from the beginning of this year and compare that to all sales from the beginning of this year.”

Lastly, the licenses could unlock Musixmatch’s ability to create motion artwork based on songs in the dataset.

This new announcement signals the opening of a possible new revenue stream for music publishers and Musixmatch, which, to date, is best known for its role in providing accurate, authorized lyrics to streaming and social media services like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Google, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio and Instagram. To date, the Bologna, Italy-based company has partnered with over 225,000 publishers and nearly 3 million songwriters.

“We’re looking forward to this collaboration with our trusted partners to build and share entirely new revenue streams together,” says Musixmatch founder/ CEO Massimo Ciociola. “Put simply: without songwriters, there can be no music industry. These agreements will ensure the writers of today and tomorrow are compensated for their creative works, not only in today’s marketplace, but also in the dynamic, AI-powered world that is rapidly emerging. Our long-standing partnerships with rights owners enable us to confidently build new services that will properly compensate songwriters while delivering value to music publishers and all who recognize the power of a song to move culture and provide meaning to our world.”