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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2019 | THEGLOBEANDMAILO GROWINGGLOBALLY B9
D
arryl Ballantyne and his
friends were students at
the University of Waterloo
when it occurred to them that
there might be business potential
in song lyrics. The idea came to
them in 2000, when Mr. Ballan-
tyne’s friend Chris Book was try-
ing to figure out the name of a
song based on just a few lyrics.
“Back then, I was the go-to mu-
sic guy who could ‘name that
tune’ almost always, but that par-
ticular time, I couldn’t. Chris went
searching online through lyric
sites, realized that they all sucked,
and suggested we start our own,”
says Mr. Ballantyne, who co-
founded Toronto-based lyric li-
censing platform LyricFind Inc.
with Mr. Book and Mohamed
Moutadayne.
The three men understood the
demand for an easy-to-use lyrics
database that would properly
compensate rights holders for the
use of their content through li-
censing agreements, says Mr. Bal-
lantyne, LyricFind’s chief execu-
tive officer.
After shutting down their first
attempt as a consumer-focused
service, Mr. Ballantyne received a
call from Microsoft Corp. The
technology giant was launching
its MSN Music store and asked
whether the group would be in-
terested in providing a lyrics
search and licensing service to the
platform. After some initial hand
wringing, LyricFind was reborn in
2004 as a business-to-business
service.
LyricFind makes its money by
collecting licensing fees from cli-
ents such as Spotify and Google
on behalf of the rights holders –
songwriters or publishers. Today,
LyricFind has 75 employees and
offices in Toronto, New York, Lon-
don, Hanoi and Tangier, Morocco,
to transcribe lyrics and manage li-
censing and rights. The company
has licences with more than 5,000
music publishers and operates in
more than 200 countries. Its cli-
ent list includes major American
and overseas entertainment and
technology companies such as
Amazon.com Inc., Universal Mu-
sic Publishing Group, Alphabet
Inc. subsidiary Google LLC, Sony
Corp., Warner Music Group, Spot-
ify Technology SA and Billboard-
.com, a subsidiary of Prometheus
Global Media LLC.
“We’ve gotten to the point now
where everywhere around the
world is familiar with what we’re
doing and how it works, but we
went through a long stage of hav-
ing to educate the publishers andcopyright societies in every new
territory about how the business
could work,” Mr. Ballantyne says,
adding that discussions focused
on the benefits and opportuni-
ties, as well as “realistic” fees.
Companies such as LyricFind
are contributing to a growing sec-
tor of Canadian cultural exports:
innovative expertise. Of the $15.7-
billion in total cultural exports
from Canada in2017,governance,
funding and professional support
accounted for $1.2-billion, accord-
ing to Statistics Canada.
The largest contributing sector
within cultural exports was crafts,
at $4.2-billion, which includes
various manufactured products
as well as jewellery, pottery and
knives. Film and video accountedfor $3-billion, design $1.1-billion
and the performing arts $900-
million.
“Canada’s exports of cultural
goods and services add signifi-
cant value to the Canadian econo-
my,” says Martine Courage, a spo-
keswoman for Heritage Canada.
Approximately $9.5-billion of
the $15.7-billion, or more than 60
per cent of those exports, were
bound for the United States, Can-
ada’s key cultural export market.
A long-standing exemption for
cultural industries has been in
place since the North American
free-trade agreement was imple-
mented in 1988 and remains in
the yet-to-be-ratified United
States-Mexico-Canada Agree-
ment. The provision allows Cana-
da to maintain protections on
ownership, subsidies and regula-
tion of cultural industries in the
name of protecting Canada’s cul-
tural identity. The new deal de-
fines cultural industries as those
engaged in the publication, distri-
bution or sale of books, maga-
zines, film, video and music, as
well as broadcasting, including in
the digital space.
Last year, the Government of
Canada launched its “Creative Ex-
port Strategy” to bolster what is
already a significant sector. The
program, worth $125-million over
five years, has so far funded 42 ex-
port-ready proposals. Eligible
projects can be audio-visual, de-
sign, interactive digital media,
music, performing arts, publish-
ing or visual art and must be Can-
adian-owned.
LyricFind was among 20 recip-
ients announced in April. The
company will use the money to
translate lyrics from Canadian
artists into multiple languages,
including Indigenous languages.
Mr. Ballantyne says being Can-
adian has been a major contrib-
utor to LyricFind’s success, given
the trust outsiders have in the
country that “spills over onto us.”
Canada’s multicultural popula-
tion has also helped LyricFind
create a team that can translate
and navigate the legal and cultur-
al hurdles of a global enterprise,
Mr. Ballantyne says.“Being able to be in Toronto,
the world’s most multicultural
city, and have a team from all over
the world in our office helping us
build this has really been a huge
advantage,” he says.
Canada’s knowledge and expe-
rience in creative industries is
sought after outside the country,
says Simon Brault, CEO of the
Canada Council for the Arts.
“We are seen as a country that
has a lot of expertise,” says Mr.
Brault, who is also chairman of
the International Federation of
Arts Councils and Culture Agen-
cies. “They want to see our artists,
they want to see the design that
comes out of Canada, yes, but
they also want to see how we sup-
port them, what kind of public
policy we have in Canada.”
Still, the challenge remains to
find new and growing markets for
our cultural exports, Mr. Brault
says.
For Jennifer Pullin, founder of
the Fibres of Life fair-trade part-
nership with wool producers in
Nepal, the key to export success is
building a cross-border brand one
step at a time. Fibres of Life prod-
ucts are available across Canada
but exports to the U.S. comprise
about 65 per cent of the business.
Ms. Pullin’s first foray south of
the border began with a trade
show in New York and today she
attends about a half-dozen trade
fairs in the U.S. each year.
“They are absolutely critical,”
says Ms. Pullin, who founded the
Halifax-based company 14 years
ago. “Just the population density
alone gives you a lot of opportuni-
ty. There are more retail stores,
there’s so many more trade
shows.”
While exporting can be daunt-
ing for a small business, Ms. Pullin
recommends tapping into gov-
ernment programs and other
companies for support.
“Reach out and learn from
those doing what you are doing in
the area you want to be in,” she
says, adding that the learning
curve is too steep “to try to figure
it all out on your own.”SpecialtoTheGlobeandMailWhytheworldwantsapieceofCanadianculture
Exportsofcultural
goodsandservices
addbillionstothe
domesticeconomy
DENE MOORE
Darryl Ballantyne, co-founder and CEO of Toronto-based LyricFind, says
Canada’s multicultural population has played a role in his company
developing a team that can translate and navigate the cultural and legal
hurdles of a global enterprise.GALITRODAN/THEGLOBEANDMAIL