Last year, the US National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) had Rap Genius squarely in its sights, after the startup came top of a table of popular unlicensed lyrics sites (Bulletin, 12-Nov-13). Rap Genius quickly announced a deal with publisher Sony/ATV Music and promised more agreements to come, including plans to sit down with the NMPA. Six months later, the pair have reached an agreement. “Today’s announcement is a welcome one, and I applaud Rap Genius for respecting the rights of songwriters and compensating them fairly for their work,” said NMPA boss David Israelite, with his organisation revealing later yesterday that the deal enables members to “receive compensation for past use of lyrics and license for use moving forward”. Good news for publishers and songwriters, but given Rap Genius’ popularity and the backdated element, we suspect it means the startup will be needing new funding sooner rather than later, following a $15m funding round in 2012 (Bulletin, 4-Oct-12).
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Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…