I just read an article about Yahoo and Gracenote conspiring to create a service for song lyrics. I get leery any time big players get involved in anything music related. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a fan of music and do everything in my power to support music -- like not allowing people to copy my MP3's and running a website like Local Band Network. But, really, is someone sitting down and transcribing lyrics really an issue that needs attention? I suppose that when someone misquotes Peter Gabriel as saying "Don't you know you've got a chocolate monkey." instead of "Don't you know you've got to shock the monkey." it might be an insult to Mr. Gabriel's artistic sensibilities but does he need to be compensated for someone typing out the lyrics they hear?

Yahoo and Gracenote are proposing is a subscription and/or advertising based service. To what lengths will they go to protect their investments? I have seen too many sites shut down by threat of legal action to have a good feeling about this. We're not talking about the ability for people to load up their MP3 player for free; we are talking about free speech. What is next? Will there be a site that tells what the composer of a song felt when they wrote it and any other person who gives their take on the meaning of the song online will be forced to remove it? Trust me, bad things will come from this effort. Read the article and the tone and you will understand my fears.

Comment here