ARTISTdirect Announces Landmark Licensing Partnership With EMI Music Publishing

Deal Provides ARTISTdirect with Lyric Rights and Access to More than One Million Songs

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ARTISTdirect, Inc. (www.artistdirect.com), the premier Internet resource for music and entertainment news, today announced a landmark licensing partnership with EMI Music Publishing, one of the world’s largest music publishers, for rights to the lyrics of some its most popular songs. Through the deal, access to official lyrics of more than one million EMI songs will be featured in the dynamic new lyrics section on ARTISTdirect.com.

“In the past, music fans have had to rely on user generated lyrics posted on the Internet that were often inaccurate or incomplete; this partnership helps create one of the largest repositories for official lyrics as written by the songwriters.”

The unique licensing partnership opens the vaults of the publisher powerhouse to give ARTISTdirect fans easy access to legal song lyrics from top music acts past and present from current chart toppers to beloved classics.

“EMI has the publishing rights to some of the greatest, most beloved songs ever written and performed and we are truly delighted to be able to share them with our community,” said Dimitri Villard, Interim CEO of ARTISTdirect. “In the past, music fans have had to rely on user generated lyrics posted on the Internet that were often inaccurate or incomplete; this partnership helps create one of the largest repositories for official lyrics as written by the songwriters.”

EMI Music Publishing Chairman & CEO Roger Faxon commented, “Great lyrics are at the heart of every great song, and our incredible songwriters spend many hours crafting words which music fans everywhere can relate to and enjoy. We are delighted to be able to work with ARTISTdirect on this new service which gives people access to lyrics from some of the best songs ever written, at the same time as allowing songwriters to be paid appropriately for their creative efforts.”

The new lyrics section fortifies ARTISTdirect as the best destination for music fans looking for information, news and entertainment on every musical act in a multitude of genres.

Added Villard: “This added lyrics feature also enables ARTISTdirect to further solidify the band-fan relationship with another layer of connectivity with our community.”

ARTISTdirect provides 24/7 in-depth coverage of music and entertainment news with behind-the-scenes interviews, reviews and exclusive music festival information with a full time editorial staff dedicated to keeping fans in the know. Additionally, ARTISTdirect hosts a variety of music videos and robust video channels featuring content from ManiaTV, GoDigital, Comedy-Time, Suretone Records, Celebrities.com and the ARTISTdirect Archives amongst others.

About ARTISTdirect, Inc.

Headquartered in Santa Monica, CA, ARTISTdirect.com is the premier destination for all things related to music and film and their artists. Through its rich, multimedia repository of contextually relevant information and entertainment, the company creates deep connections between artists and fans that deliver benefits to both the entertainment consumer and the entertainment industry. ARTISTdirect.com receives over 5 million unique visitors per month while the ARTISTdirect network, a family of related Web sites, draws more than 45 million monthly unique visitors. Featuring the latest hit videos, streams, free downloads, breaking news, in-depth interviews with musicians, actors, filmmakers and film score composers, a huge data base filled with biographies and discographies plus hard-to-find information, as well as CDs, concert and movie tickets for purchase, ARTISTdirect.com is the ultimate resource for anyone with an appetite for finding new and interesting content about their favorite artists and their music and films.

For more information please visit www.artistdirect.com.

About EMI Music Publishing

EMI Music Publishing is the world's most creative music publisher with more than one million copyrights including some of the best known songs ever written. Included in the EMI Music Publishing catalog are iconic songs including “New York New York,” “You’ve Got A Friend,” “The James Bond Theme,” “Lady Marmalade,” “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “Always On My Mind,” “Over The Rainbow,” “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” and “Singin’ In the Rain.” Its current hit-making writers and producers include Arctic Monkeys, Beyoncé, James Blunt, Alan Jackson, Norah Jones, Alicia Keys, Pink, Usher, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams and Amy Winehouse.