So back in 2010 the first law suit started against lyrics sites: > http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/californ...

It was pretty clear that others would be next. Hence unlicensed wouldn't be maintainable.

Next to that, I wanted to sell advertising to big brands. My advertising partner insisted we needed to be licensed for the Coca Cola's of this world to spend money on my traffic.

So for me it was an opportunity to increase revenue, at the costs of lower profit margin.