A deal between Apple iTunes and Gracenotes may be in the works according to this recent Reuters report posted by PC Magazine. Gracenotes has gained the rights to legally distribute lyrics from BMG, Universal Music, Sony/ATV and other content providers. A deal between iTunes and Gracenote is a natural evolution of this acquisition, similar to the existing agreement that allows Gracenote to supply iTunes with track information. Gracenotes CEO Craig Palmer expects lyrics to provide up to $100 million in annual revenues by a decade from now. An iTunes deal would create a portion of those revenues.

TUAW recently showed readers how to add lyrics to iPods using iTunes' current features.

She was among the most mysterious figures in classical music: Joyce Hatto, a renowned pianist who retired from active performance in 1976 due to ill health. With the help of her husband and his private recording studio, however, Hatto released scores of recordings in the 1990s, performing the complete solo piano works of many composers including Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert and Liszt. Some suspected that Hatto might not have produced all her stunning performances herself, but prior to her 2006 death there was no sure confirmation.

It was one of Hatto's recordings of Liszt that Gramophone magazine writer Jed Distler popped into his computer in early February, and iTunes loyally searched the Gracenote database for a match. Found one, too -- but not to a Hatto CD; the disc matched another Liszt recording by pianist László Simon. When Distler pulled that CD from his collection and played it alongside the Hatto disc, they sounded precisely the same.

The ensuing cascade of suspicion, comparison, testing and confirmation is documented thoroughly in the Gramophone and Stereophile articles (and explicated further in the Pristine Audio and CHARM analysis pages), but the summary version: most if not all of Hatto's late recordings are apparently copied from other artists, some modified to hide the theft, some just duplicated as-is. If not for the surprise iTunes ID, this might have gone undetected for much longer. I've often seen iTunes and Gracenote make wildly inaccurate guesses when confronted with rare or custom CDs, but in this case I suppose that wild guess was forensically sound.

Thanks Jonathan!

[via Stereophile]