So, who will pay the bill? In this fearless free-for-all of a file-sharing debate, the Canadian songwriters are bucking the desires of the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) and asking the internet service providers (ISPs) to fill the bill.

This resolution puts songwriters and fans on the same free music team. The ISPs or websites that offer the free downloads will have to pony up some cash, though, as the free ride for them is about to come to an end.

It’s good to see the Canadian songwriters coming up with a reasonable solution, rather than going the route of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), which is handing out lawsuits left and right to consumers like ill-tasting bubble gum. With any luck, a little bit of this reasonableness will rub off on the powers that be south of the Great White border.

The free unlimited music downloads that Nokia and Universal are offering are an attempt to thwart the efforts of illegal websites. Mariah Carey, 50-Cent and Sting are just a few of the artists offered in Universal’s (unit of Vivendi) massive library.

The idea behind offering free music downloads is also to give a boost to sagging CD sales. By buying a particular brand of Nokia phone, customers are allowed an unlimited number of free downloads from millions of tracks available for one year.

There is no word yet as to the cost of the tracks once the one-year deal expires. The advantage of this deal to consumers is besides getting a cell phone, they may download as much music as they want and keep it on their PC. Offers from competitors do not allow users to keep the music, so the Nokia Universal deal is ideal for those wanting a year in order to build their own massive music libraries.

The word on the street is that the competition is very nervous over this free music download proposition. And why wouldn’t they be? The word “free” is like honey to the busy music bees buzzing all over the Internet. Look for many to create their own hive of music starting next year.

Gracenote has been implicated in this rumor as the supplier of lyrics. Earlier this year Gracenote teamed up with Yahoo Music to supply lyrics for over 400,000 songs in their database. If this music lyrics plan does come to fruition, who will be a big enough player to take a bite out of Apple?

Free searchable music lyrics to over 200,000 songs are now being offered at Rhapsody Online. In a deal with RealNetworks and LyricFind, the lyrics from 1,800 different independent and major music publishers are being offered at no charge.

This offering will provide competition to the Yahoo and Gracenote offering that I had blogged about previously. It will also give some of the other large free music lyrics databases on the Web a run for their money. And, running for the money, is indeed, what it’s all about now isn’t it? Run, Forrest, run!

According to Oscar Rohena who works for the site, “The site is all about giving the fans a chance to vote for what they believe are the artists, music, and films out there. It works to give emerging artists a democratic platform to have their skills and talents showcased, promoted, and rewarded.”

Right now the website is giving away $10,000 in prizes to the top talents. So, if you’re a talented, singer-songwriter and wish to be seen and heard, here’s your chance for a little free publicity and a shot at being the next Online Idol.

Gracenote is saying that the lyrics to popular songs that are downloaded are more accurate than some websites carrying thousands of music lyrics. This is because Gracenote gets its lyrics directly from music publishers, official songbooks, album liners and other official sources.

If you’re old enough to remember record albums, which typically had lyrics printed on the backs of the album, album sleeves or in enclosed printed material, you’ll know how painful the transition to CD was when most music lyrics started falling out of the plastic jackets into oblivion.

This is precisely why many online lyrics websites have been so popular since the beginning of the Internet, to fill this void that music publishers have failed to fill. While our website only lists a few popular song lyrics for education purposes with a critique of each, some websites offers literally hundreds of thousands of lyrics of varying degrees of reliability.

I don’t see Yahoo Music and Gracenote as directly competing with these large lyrics databases. But, rather, Yahoo Music and Gracenote will be complimenting them as another source for music lovers to turn to who want to be assured that when they buy music they will also be receiving accurate lyrics. In the end, the music buyer will win and that’s what it’s all about now isn’t it?

Of particular interest to me is the lyrics critique section in which people post many different genres of song lyrics for others to pick apart. Unlike on some other message boards, the posters here are respectful, helpful and most times insightful in their comments. This is because most who reply are writers themselves who have also overcome barriers to post their own lyrics up for public scrutiny as well.

This songwriting forum gets a Two Drums Up award from me.