MetroLyrics was a website dedicated to song

lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a "libretto" and their writer, ...

. It was founded in December 2002, and its database contained over one million songs by over 16,000 artists. The site abruptly went offline in late June 2021, and its webmasters have never commented on its closing.

History

In 2008, MetroLyrics was the first lyrics-dedicated site to license

Gracenote Gracenote, Inc. is a company and service that provides music, video, and sports metadata and automatic content recognition (ACR) technologies to entertainment services and companies worldwide. Formerly CDDB ("Compact Disc Data Base"), Gracenote ...

Inc.'s lyrics catalogue. Through its licensing model, copyright holders of lyrics accrued royalty revenue when their work was displayed on MetroLyrics.com, which MetroLyrics recouped by collecting money from banner advertisements on its site. Royalties were paid on all displayed lyrics and were handled through Gracenote. In January 2013, LyricFind acquired Gracenote's lyrics licensing business, merging it in with their own. MetroLyrics' licensing model was distinct, as many lyrics websites offer content that is unlicensed and possibly copyright infringing. Unlike other lyric websites, MetroLyrics placed a warning on songs containing explicit lyrics. MetroLyrics was acquired by

CBS Interactive Paramount Streaming (formerly CBS Digital Media, CBS Interactive, and ViacomCBS Streaming) is a division of Paramount Global that oversees the company's video streaming technology and direct-to-consumer services; including Pluto TV and Paramo ...

in October 2011.

Red Ventures Red Ventures is an American media company that owns and operates brands such as Lonely Planet, The Points Guy, Healthline, and Bankrate. Red Ventures focuses on news, advice, and review websites. The company's corporate headquarters is locate ...

acquired the CNET Media Group, including MetroLyrics, from CBS Interactive in 2020.

References

External links

* {{Vancouver Corporations Canadian music websites Companies based in Vancouver Internet properties established in 2002 Internet properties disestablished in 2021 Online archives Online music and lyrics databases Technology companies of Canada Former CBS Interactive websites Red Ventures 2002 establishments in British Columbia 2021 disestablishments in British Columbia 2020 mergers and acquisitions