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 relationships with over 4,000 music publishers, The Harry Fox Agency, APRA/AMCOS, CSDEM, APEM, and many more.

The company now delivers services to hundreds of websites and music services that want to enhance their music products with lyrics, including Pandora, Deezer, Microsoft’s Bing, Amazon, Plex, Roon, MetroLyrics, Shazam, SoundHound, LyricsMode, SongMeanings, iHeartRadio, and many more.

As an authority on licensing and digital content, Darryl has spoken at industry events including SF Music Tech, Canadian Music Week, Music Matters, 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 Bachelor’s 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 ground-breaking 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, automotive and technology fields has been proven with his many years of success.

The past five years with his StessCo Consulting Group he has worked with a number of different start ups (LyricFind, Dash Radio, Boombotix, Music Story, Rdio) as a business development and sales consultant and advisor. 
Previously, as CEO and founder of AmpliFIND Music Services, Andrew drove the company’s overall strategy, innovation and growth which led to their successful sale to Sony 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.

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 Sony/Playstation®3, Apple, Delphi, Yahoo!, Bang & Olufsen and RealNetworks. 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.
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 and many industry conferences.
Andrew is an accomplished Bass player, 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.

Larry is the Managing Director for Walden Venture Capital. His focus is digital media and consumer services.

He was named to the Billboard Power 100 in music and the Twitter 140 to follow. Larry was a founding investor in Pandora (NYSE: P) in early 2004 when Walden led the rebirth round to focus the company on launching a consumer-facing service and was a Director from 2004 through its IPO. Larry is a Director at SoundHound, (sound and voice search), Aarki (mobile monetization), BandPage (platform for bands online), Boombotix (Ultra-portable speakers), Scientific Revenue (in-app pricing optimization) and goTenna (off-grid communications). He also led Walden's investment in Terayon (acquired by Motorola). As an Angel investor, Larry has backed companies including Jukely, Wingz LyricFind, Maestro, and Camio. He is a member of the Advisory Council for Industry Ventures and serves on the non-profit Board of the JazzSchool in Berkeley, CA.

Prior to Walden, Larry was a digital media sell-side Equity Research Analyst at Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown where he led the top performing IPOs of 1998 and 1999 (Terayon and CBS MarketWatch), as well as the IPOs of Maxis, Edmark, and Netflix (initial S-1 IPO filing) among other equity and debt financings (Broderbund, Sierra On-line, Excite@Home, Spectrum Holobyte, CBS Sportsline). Prior experience includes Robertson Stephens & Company, Digidesign and General Management in computer services retail.

Larry has been a guest lecturer at Haas Graduate School of Business, Stanford Graduate School of Business and Harvard Business School. He has been a speaker and panelist at numerous conferences including Dealmaker Media’s Under the Radar, SF MusicTech, Billboard,
AlwaysOn and Digital Hollywood among others.

Larry received a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley.