SongMeanings
| SongMeanings | |
 SongMeanings.net mainpage on 2011-12-24 | |
| URL | http://www.songmeanings.net/ |
| Status | Online! |
| Archiving status | Not saved yet |
| Archiving type | Unknown |
| IRC channel | #archiveteam-bs (on hackint) |
SongMeanings is a site dedicated to recording the lyrics and interpretations of songs. It launched in 2001 and shortly thereafter became a popular place for users to visit and deposit their interpretations of song lyrics. Over the years it has accumulated a database of over half a million song lyrics. It is one of the few song lyrics sites that is both accurate, extensive, and free of overbearing ads. In addition, it holds troves of personal comments and reflections on the songs themselves.
Vital signs
It is hard to gauge interest and activity, though it certainly hasn't grabbed any headlines in recent years. Worryingly, Google Insights shows a slowly accelerating decline in searches for "songmeanings.net" since 2009, with an almost 50% loss in 2011: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=songmeanings.net,songmeanings.com
2013 NMPA activity
In October 2013, the National Music Publishers Association sent take-down notices to 50 lyrics websites. Song Meanings was luckily not included, apparently having signed a licensing deal with LyricFind in 2011. But Rap Genius, another site that publishes analyses of lyrics, was. This may be an indication that lyrics sites, even those engaging in fair use-covered critical analysis, are on the radar of litigious copyright-holders.
