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Darryl Ballantyne originally conceived LyricFind in 2000 with Mohamed Moutadayne and Chris Book at Ontario’s University of Waterloo to be the largest, most accurate destination for lyrics on the Internet. Officially launched in 2004, the company pioneered the licensed digital lyrics space, successfully negotiating the first-ever mass lyrics licensing deal with EMI Music Publishing in 2005. Since then, Darryl has grown LyricFind to be the largest legal, licensed lyrics database in the world, with millions of licensed tracks available and hundreds of lyrics sublicensing clients. LyricFind has established licensing and content relationships with over 2,700 music publishers, The Harry Fox Agency, and Rovi.

The company now delivers services to over hundreds of web sites and mobile applications that want to enhance their music products with lyrics, including Microsoft’s Bing, Pandora, CBS, Samsung, Lyrics.com, Slacker, Shazam, SoundHound, LyricsMode, SongMeanings, Universal Music, and Disney. In addition, LyricFind offers two direct to consumer mobile applications, Lyrics Lite and Lyrics Pro for the iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry Playbook platforms.

As an authority on licensing and digital content, Darryl has spoken at industry events including SF Music Tech, Canadian Music Week, Digital Music Forum, Music & Media Finland, CMJ, MIDEM, SXSW, and more.

Before launching LyricFind, Darryl was Manager of Digital Development & Distribution at EMI Music in Los Angeles, where he was involved in deals with companies such as MusicMatch, Napster, and iTunes.  Darryl earned a Bachelor of Mathematics with a Business minor from the University of Waterloo.

Mohamed Moutadayne, CTO and Senior Vice President of Product and Services, co-founded LyricFind with Darryl Ballantyne and Chris Book. He and Darryl oversee the company’s day-to-day operations.

Mohamed’s main priorities are LyricFind’s product development and client services.  On the technical side, he designed the majority of LyricFind’s infrastructure, including the web services, administrative processes and publisher management solutions.  He and his team of developers work closely with the company’s clients to ensure they can easily integrate LyricFind’s services.

Mohamed also oversees LyricFind’s music publishing relationships, administering all the details of the agreements, from lyric content delivery and data matching to royalty reporting and payments.  Mohamed applies his technical skill to the needs of LF’s clients to develop solutions for the needs of their businesses.

Mohamed continues to design improvements to the technology that drives the LyricFind service, and he also works closely with Darryl on determining business strategy and brainstorming new product opportunities.

In addition to his experiences with LyricFind, Mohamed has designed and implemented web solutions for several e-business companies, including Mazdaq eSolutions, Waterloo Maple, Arya Consulting, and ONCE Corporation. Mohamed graduated from the University of Waterloo with a Bachelors Degree in Mathematics (Combinatorics & Optimization) and Computer Science.

Chris is a Founder, Board Member and consultant at LyricFind. He currently works in the Operating Systems group at RIM where he has been for the last six years.  He graduated from the University of Waterloo in 2004 with a degree in Computer Engineering.

Chris was involved with early LyricFind development such as the web services and administrator portals, and continues to contribute on a consulting basis.  His recent works has focused on performance monitoring, database design and search services.

Integrating his widespread digital authority in music, mobile, IPTV and product & service development, Ted Cohen is the Managing Partner of TAG Strategic.

In an industry that’s been slow to embrace change, Cohen is the exception to the stereotypical music-exec rule. Of course, when you start a career on the road with Alice Cooper and Van Halen, you’re more primed for the unexpected.

Known throughout the technology and music industries as being “part ambassador and part evangelist,” Cohen was instrumental in crafting the licensing agreements upon which the Rhapsody subscription service and the iTunes Music Store were built.

In his previous role as Senior Vice President of Digital Development & Distribution for EMI Music (home of artists including Coldplay and the Rolling Stones), Cohen led next-generation digital business development worldwide for this “big four” record company, which includes labels such as Capitol, Virgin, Angel/Blue Note, Parlophone and Chrysalis. During that time, EMI led the industry by embracing and exploiting new technologies and business models such as digital downloads and online music subscriptions, custom compilations, wireless services, high-definition audio and Internet radio.

In addition to seeking out, evaluating and executing business opportunities for the company on a global basis, Cohen served as both a strategist and key decision-maker for EMI’s global new media and anti-piracy efforts. He worked to establish company-wide digital policies, which have provided EMI’s artists and labels a substantial advantage in the digital music arena.

Prior to his role at EMI, Cohen served as Executive Vice President of Digital Music Network Inc., where he co-founded and served as Chairman of the groundbreaking Webnoize conferences.

Cohen also led two highly successful new media consulting operations, DMN Consulting and Consulting Adults, attracting clients such as Amazon.com, Microsoft, Universal Studios, DreamWorks Records, Liquid Audio, Wherehouse Records/Checkout.com and various other entertainment, technology and new media organizations. Cohen also held senior management positions at both Warner Bros. Records and Philips Media.

A 30-year industry veteran, Cohen was recently elected Chairman of the Mobile Entertainment Forum Americas board, and currently chairs MidemNet, an international music/technology conference convened in Cannes each year. Cohen also serves on the NARAS (Grammy) Los Angeles chapter Board of Governors as well as the national Trustee Board, the Board of Directors for the Neil Bogart Memorial Fund, co-chairs the new media arm of the T.J. Martell Foundation, and lends his time and talents to music & technology education efforts such as the Grammy In The Schools Program.

Andrew Stess has a reputation for being a deal-closer, relationship-builder and revenue driver for business in established and emerging technologies. His vast experience in the digital media, consumer electronics and technology fields has been proven with his many years of success.

Recently, as CEO and founder of AmpliFIND Music Services, Andrew drove the company’s overall strategy, innovation and growth which led to their successful sale in just 2 years. . During Andrew’s prior role as CEO at MusicIP, he escorted the new young startup to a proven B2B technology company with licensing deals to Disney and Memorex. He also spearheaded the M&A efforts, selling the assets to AmpliFIND.

Previously, Andrew spent several years as Vice President of Consumer Electronics at All Media Guide (AMG). He launched the company’s CE and technology licensing division, building it from the ground up. He established critical strategic relationships with an extensive number of leading-edge companies including Playstation®3, Apple, Delphi, Yahoo!, AOL, Bang & Olufsen, RealNetworks and MP3Tunes. AMG’s subsequent sale to Macrovision (ROVI) in 2007 for $85 million was facilitated by Andrew’s M&A efforts, essential technical expertise and passion for music and business.

Prior to his role at AMG, he pioneered the licensing of media recognition in consumer electronics devices and media player applications at Gracenote where he was the first non founding executive team member. Andrew was also a senior sales and business development executive at Liquid Audio where he was instrumental in expanding their technology into the Asian markets.

An internationally sought-after moderator and speaker in the digital music space, Andrew has spoken at the Digital Music Forum, iHollywood Music 2.0, Telematics Update, San Francisco MusicTech Summit, and many industry conferences, tradeshows and events.

Andrew is also an Advisory board member for ArtistTech Media and Song Crusade. Now, with his StessCo Consulting Group he works with a number of different start ups as a business development consultant.

In addition to his many achievements in the digital media industry, Andrew is an accomplished Bass player as songwriter, publisher and ASCAP member. He has composed music for film, radio and television, with his songs on primetime shows on both FOX and NBC.

Andrew graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Film Composing from Berklee College of Music in Boston.