Genius (site)

Founding and early years ( 2009–2012 )

Genius was originally conceived as a hip hop-oriented crowdsourcing site, and was originally called Rap Exegesis . The site changed its name to Rap Genius in December 2009, because the spelling of “exegesis” was difficult for users ^{[5] [6]} . The resource was created in August 2009 by Tom Lehman (who “entered the first line of code” for the website at 12:30 pm on August 19, 2009) ^[7] , Ilane Zahory and Mabod Moged, three of whom met during their student years at Yale University ^{[3] [8] [9]} . Lehman and Mohedom came up with an idea for the site in the summer of 2009, when Lehman asked Mohaedom about the meaning of the text in the song Cam'Ron ^{[3] [5]} . After Lehman created the earliest version of the site, he, along with the co-founders Mogedom and Zekori, decided to leave his job at DE Shaw and Google to immerse yourself in the work on the site.

Initial financing

In 2011, when the site “attracted more than 1 million unique visitors per month” ^[5] , Rap Genius applied for the launch of the Y Combinator incubator, “becoming the fastest growing start-up in Y Combinator history” ^[3] . Having received $ 1.8 million in initial funding, the site’s founders were able to open their office in Williamsburg, Brooklyn ^[3] . In 2012, the company received an additional investment of $ 15 million from the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz ( also known as a16z ) ^{[3] [10] [11]} , partly due to past efforts of partner Mark Andrissen to create a group annotation object in the web browser ^[3] . Ben Horowitz described Genius as “one of the most important things we have ever financed” ^[3] . Three co-founders of the company were named Forbes 30 Under 30 in December 2012. ^[12]

Early controversies ( 2013–2014 )

In an attempt to extend this concept to other cultural genres, Genius launched several new channels in 2013, including News Genius, Rock Genius and Poetry Genius. The service also added the ability for external publishers to integrate the Rap Genius platform into other websites to create annotated articles ^[13] . However, the company also experienced some problems in the field of online content.

Expansion and rebranding ( 2014–2015 )

In March 2014, Genius launched a feature that allows users to “insert” annotated texts on other websites. ^[14]

Launch of content ( 2016 – present )

Genius began offering original content in 2016 ^[15] , starting with “behind the lyrics” integration offered in collaboration with Spotify , which “connects pop-up annotations with selected tracks from the streaming service, as well as exclusive artist content”, launching with content from Pusha T , Tinashe and Diplo ^[16] . Initially available only on iOS, “for texts” became available on Android in April 2017 ^[17] . In October 2018, Genius announced a partnership with Apple Music , where Apple Music subscribers could play songs in full directly from the site. In addition, Genius will provide lyrics for the main Apple Music service. ^[18]

Genius began planning the creation of original video content, and in June 2016 announced the hiring of Regina Dellea, who previously led the Mic , as the lead ^[19] . In September 2016, Genius announced the admission of Steve Stout, founder and CEO of Translation Brands Development and Marketing, to his board of directors. ^{[20] [21]}

Genius also received an additional $ 15 million in 2018, resulting in a total funding of $ 79 million since 2009. ^[22] In June 2019, Genius accused Google of removing texts from Genius.com without permission and publishing texts directly on Google search pages. This led to a drop in traffic to Genius.com. ^{[23] [24]}

Live events

Genius began holding live events at its headquarters in Brooklyn in 2017. On April 26, 2017, Genius had a party with rapper Wale for the release of the album Wale, SHiNE ^[25] . On September 7, 2017, Rob Markman interviewed Issa Ray in front of a live audience ^[26] . Genius held their first concert event on September 9, 2017 with the IQ / BBQ festival at Genius headquarters. The event featured performances by artists, including Pusha T , Dej Loaf , A Boogie wit da Hoodie , and was held in partnership with Adidas and Atari . ^[27]

Genius hosted a live event with Dropbox in 2018 titled “Lyrics To Life,” a four-day art exhibition with music-inspired art installations. ^[28]

Merchandise

Genius began selling branded products in mid-2016. In 2017, Genius expanded its product offerings with the launch of its “1997” collection, with a set of styles and themes inspired by the 1997 cultural events. ^[29]

Works and articles on Genius are represented by different lines, highlighted in gray; Clicking on these lines displays pop-up annotations that provide additional information and context for the line in question. Users can submit their own annotations by highlighting text fragments. The texts on Genius are sorted by various thematic channels, including rap, rock and pop music, literature, news, historical texts ( History Genius ), sports, television and cinema ( Screen Genius ), as well as "X" - any other topic not covered by other categories. The site also offers a “rap map,” a display of Google maps with profiles and labels for geographic locations associated with rap culture or mentioned in rap songs. ^[thirty]

Registered users can upload, correct and comment on texts. They can also make suggestions for improving already published texts and annotations. Editors and moderators help create and control content to ensure quality writing. Users earn "IQ" from each published note. Points are awarded based not only on the amount of text that is annotated, but also on the quality of the annotations. Users get more editing and moderation rights as more IQ points are awarded. ^[31]

Spotify

Spotify includes the ability to display lyrics from Genius for specific tracks ^[32] , allowing users to "watch annotated lyrics when you listen to them." ^[33]

As of 2017, the founders Tom Lehman and Ilen Zahori are key employees and members of Genius; additional members of the board of directors Ben Horowitz, Den Gilbert and Steve Stout ^{[34] [35]} ; Chief Content Director Brendan Frederick ^[36] ; head of artist relations Rob Markman. ^[37]

Among the artists collaborating with Genius are such famous performers and producers as Lord , Frank Ocean , Lyn-Manuel Miranda ^[38] , Selena Gomez , Phoebe Ryan , DJ Khaled , Nas ^[39] , Eminem ^[40] , Rivers Cuomo and Rick Rubin . ^[41]