Monetizing Your Lyrics

The music business is like a two way train track, each track representing a distinct work  of creativity. 

You cannot execute any deal in the music business successfully without being mindful  of these two distinct works – Musical Works (Musical Compositions) and Sound  Recordings (Master Recordings). These two works have been treated extensively in  another article. 

A musical work is made up of the lyric and melody and the royalties collected for its  exploitation will usually belong to the songwriter(s) and their publisher(s). 

A piece of musical work can have more than one contributor and these contributors  must share in the copyright ownership and this must be properly captured in a split  sheet, which has been discussed in an earlier article. A co-author or co-writer is anyone  who contributes to the making of a piece of work in addition to your contribution. 

In today’s article, our focus will be on the lyrics and not on the applicable composition,  and its potential to generate substantial revenue for their copyright owners. 

It is very common to see the music publishing industry pay more attention to the  applicable songs and little attention to the lyrics and there potential to generate income  for the songwriters and their publishers independent of the whole songs. 

There are ways lyrics can be exploited that would in turn generate income for rightholders and of course the lyrics service providers would require the permission of  the songwriters or their publishers or CMOs to deploy these on their platforms. 

As a songwriter you can capitalize on the popularity of your lyrics to make additional  income. Here are some of the ways you can make that happen: 

• Utilization of your lyrics or any portion of your lyrics for web searches. It is not  uncommon to see search engines use lyrics data to identify and refine music  related searches to provide quality results. 

• Synchronization of your displayed lyrics with master and audiovisual recordings  embodying the song itself. A lot of the music streaming platforms are offering  synchronized lyrics on their platforms making it easier for their subscribers to  access their favourite songs and enjoy their experience on these platforms. These  makes it also easier for the users of these platforms to sing-a-long.

• Streaming of your digital files to consumer electronic devices, such as mobile phones, MP3 players and so on – this is first done by converting your lyrics into  digital files and encrypting the digital files. 

• Display your digital files on music streaming channels. This is now a common  feature on music streaming channels to enhance music streaming experience. 

• Print or to deliver copies of your authorised lyrics to end users. 

• Translate your original lyrics to other languages for the purposes of licensing  such translations on digital apps and platforms. 

• Licence the use of a portion of your lyric or the title of the applicable song for  use on articles like t-shirts, caps, handbands, headbands, mugs, writing pads, toys,  souvenirs, etc. 

There are some very good lyrics licensing service providers that provide lyric search,  display and synchronisation services that you may contact and they will be happy to  licence and monetize your lyrics.  

So do not rest on your oars, you can make additional bucks by licensing your lyrics independent of the applicable composition, and to help you achieve this you would  need well-articulated and formatted lyric sheets because the lyrics service providers  would always demand for this for your lyrics to be uploaded on their database. 

Thank you and keep well and stay safe. 

CHINEDU CHUKWUJI, PhD

Chinedu Chukwuji is a Copyright and Music Business Expert, Lead Consultant at PurpleBlue Entertainment Solutions and founder of PurpleBlue Academy of Music Business