Metrolyrics Goes Legit, Increases Traffic and Advertising Revenue
The Constable on September 5th, 2008
In a somewhat surprising move earlier this year, popular lyrics website Metrolyrics.com opted to move out of the so-called legally “grey” zone and go completely legit.  According to an article recently posted on Business in Vancouver, the site’s decision to do a sublicensing deal with Gracenote they have not only increased their traffic to over 23 million visitors since last December, but they have also doubled their CPM cost to advertisers.
The reason for the increase in CPM, according to the article, is the fact that many advertisers have shied away from advertising on unlicensed lyrics sites due to concerns over the legality of such sites. Now that the site is licensed and paying songwriters and publishers a licensing fee, advertisers who previously would not advertise on lyrics sites are advertising on metrolyrics.
With the success they’ve had, is it possible that more lyrics sites will join the legal realm through licensing deals including royalty payments?  Or is the fact that not even gracenote (who boasts over 800,000 songs) has rights to every single song ever enough to deter many other sites from doing so, since one they decide to go legit they would also be deciding to turn off a lot of content?
