4 ms·

The lyrics belong to the artist or publisher and lyric sites need a licence from them.

baby 7y ago
I always hated this. It's been historically hard to get easy access to lyrics of songs you've bought! It always made no sense to me that you couldn't publish lyrics of songs.
- Borealid 7y ago
  I think legally you likely have not "bought" a song, you have licensed it. The license includes the right to listen to the song, but not to redistribute either the music or the lyrics. "Ownership" such as it is for intellectual property is still with the copyright holder(s), which is why it makes sense that you don't have the same rights you would if it were truly "your" song.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - acjohnson55 7y ago
    To add a little nuance to this, there are two copyrights at play here, the song and the recording. The songwriter (who may or may not be one of the performers) originally owns the rights to the song, but often sells them to a publishing company. The lyrics pertain to the song. The recording is made with a mechanical license to the rights of the song, and a CD is distributed with a license to the recording (owned by the band, unless they recorded as a work-for-hire for their their record label, which is typical). As a listener, you either own a physical product that happens to have been made with those licenses, or you're listening to a performance, if you're streaming. Neither of these things give you further rights with the song or recording. This stuff is pretty wacky, and I may have some of those details wrong. I took a class in music industry law a decade ago
  - colejohnson66 7y ago
    Maybe in the context of streaming, but when you buy a CD, AFAIK, you own the copy, but there are limits on what you can do with it because of copyright laws; Just because I own something, doesn’t mean I can make a copy and give it away. That
- ceejayoz 7y ago
  > It always made no sense to me that you couldn't publish lyrics of songs. Why? It's pretty much a poem.
  - eropple 7y ago
    Poems are under copyright and can't be reproduced without permission, either.
    - ceejayoz 7y ago
      ... That's my point? That they're equally copyrightable?
  - wilg 7y ago
    It's an annoying thing because you basically always already have rights to listen to the song, but there is no easy way to get the lyrics as text.
- kayfox 7y ago
  >> It's been historically hard to get easy access to lyrics of songs you've bought! The ones printed in the booklet that came with the CD or encoded in the mp3 file?
  - baby 7y ago
    I seldom saw lyrics in a booklet. Maybe because I was living in France?
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

baby 7y ago

I always hated this. It's been historically hard to get easy access to lyrics of songs you've bought! It always made no sense to me that you couldn't publish lyrics of songs.

Borealid 7y ago
I think legally you likely have not "bought" a song, you have licensed it. The license includes the right to listen to the song, but not to redistribute either the music or the lyrics. "Ownership" such as it is for intellectual property is still with the copyright holder(s), which is why it makes sense that you don't have the same rights you would if it were truly "your" song.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- acjohnson55 7y ago
  To add a little nuance to this, there are two copyrights at play here, the song and the recording. The songwriter (who may or may not be one of the performers) originally owns the rights to the song, but often sells them to a publishing company. The lyrics pertain to the song. The recording is made with a mechanical license to the rights of the song, and a CD is distributed with a license to the recording (owned by the band, unless they recorded as a work-for-hire for their their record label, which is typical). As a listener, you either own a physical product that happens to have been made with those licenses, or you're listening to a performance, if you're streaming. Neither of these things give you further rights with the song or recording. This stuff is pretty wacky, and I may have some of those details wrong. I took a class in music industry law a decade ago
- colejohnson66 7y ago
  Maybe in the context of streaming, but when you buy a CD, AFAIK, you own the copy, but there are limits on what you can do with it because of copyright laws; Just because I own something, doesn’t mean I can make a copy and give it away. That
ceejayoz 7y ago
> It always made no sense to me that you couldn't publish lyrics of songs. Why? It's pretty much a poem.
- eropple 7y ago
  Poems are under copyright and can't be reproduced without permission, either.
  - ceejayoz 7y ago
    ... That's my point? That they're equally copyrightable?
- wilg 7y ago
  It's an annoying thing because you basically always already have rights to listen to the song, but there is no easy way to get the lyrics as text.
kayfox 7y ago
>> It's been historically hard to get easy access to lyrics of songs you've bought! The ones printed in the booklet that came with the CD or encoded in the mp3 file?
- baby 7y ago
  I seldom saw lyrics in a booklet. Maybe because I was living in France?

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]