Major forces in the music industry have banded together for BELEM — a partnership aiming to make lyric translation accessible in EU languages

Paris, France — December 14 2022 — Deezer has joined forces with a consortium of major music industry players, including Zebralution and LyricFind, to form BELEM. The consortium aims to build capacity for music publishers, songwriters, platforms, and labels to democratise and monetize access to lyrics. It will also strive to break down cultural barriers by making human translated lyrics accessible to all listeners.

BELEM is an EU-funded four year project that has been granted €2 million in funding through the Creative Europe Programme (CREA). It will drive new revenue streams to key players in the music industry by promoting European lyrics and the translations of these lyrics, alongside their monetisation. The project is also aiming to amplify the co-creation and co-production of European lyrics, adding new economic value to European musical and linguistic heritage.

In particular, the project is placing a strong focus on online and streaming lyric translations, as well as supporting publisher capacity building and the songwriters themselves on creation and translation. BELEM will also look to benefit labels and artists through providing better accessibility for lyric videos — including translated lyrics. It will also aim to impact the live sector, via both virtual and physical lyric translation exhibitions.