ArtistDirect to Launch Lyrics Section; Licenses EMI, Universal

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 18, 2008 - 7:05am.

*A correction has been made to this story.

Santa Monica, Calif. - ArtistDirect, an online network focused on music and film, announced on Monday that it has signed lyrics licensing agreements with Universal Music Publishing and EMI Music Publishing, and plans to launch a new song lyrics section on its site in the fall.

Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.

The new lyrics section on ArtistDirect.com -- whose network of sites counts over 45 million unique monthly visitors, according to comScore -- will compete with a similar offering from Gracenote, now a unit of Sony, which has signed on over 80 music publishers, including EMI, Universal, Warner/Chappell and Sony/ATV.

Santa Monica, Calif.-based ArtistDirect also owns MediaDefender, an anti-piracy firm used by the recording industry to seed peer-to-peer networks with decoy media files intended to discourage file-swappers.

The company went through a management shake-up in March that saw both its non-executive chairman and interim chief executive step down, while a new interim CEO was also named.

*Correction
This story initially confused MediaDefender with MediaSentry, an anti-piracy firm used by the recording industry to record the IP addresses of suspected file-swappers. MediaDefender uses tactics such as seeding P2P networks with "spoof" and "decoy" versions of actual media files to deter users. Chief executive Dimitri Villard told DMW the company has "never been involved in the legal enforcement activities of the music and movie industry."