Rap Genius Will License Their Lyrics After All

Today Billboard reports that Rap Genius secured a licensing agreement with Sony/ATV Music Publishing sometime “earlier this year” and are currently working out deals with other publishers.

November 14, 2013


Earlier this week, Rap Genius and 49 other lyrics sites were served take-down notices from the National Music Publishers Association. Rap Genius co-founder Ilan Zechory was quick to set Rap Genius' crowd sourced and annotated pages apart from the rest, going even so far as to call the site a "monument of human knowledge." But despite his confidence, it seems Rap Genius has begun taking steps to clean-up their game and license their lyrics.

Today Billboard reports that Rap Genius secured a licensing agreement with Sony/ATV Music Publishing -- which handles roughly 31 percent of music publishing worldwide -- sometime "earlier this year" and are currently working out deals with other publishers. Zechory shrugged off the change of tune, explaining to the New York Times: "We chose to partner with the music publishers and license the lyrics so we could get on with our work." And back to hard work those bros seem to be.

Rap Genius Will License Their Lyrics After All