Re:Spotify, Nodding to Broader Ambitions, Hires Chief Conten...
by CPLX on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @06:34PM
(#17404488)
The other problem for Genius is that they've never really identified a profitable business at a scale that even remotely approaches their level of hype.
Re:Spotify, Nodding to Broader Ambitions, Hires Chief Conten...
by mattj1 on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @05:14PM
(#17404055)
Didn't it start as a music annotation platform?
Re:Spotify, Nodding to Broader Ambitions, Hires Chief Conten...
by traek on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @06:10PM
(#17404366)
Yes, but the intention was to expand from there to allow community knowledge curation on anything.
See Ben Horowitz's note: https://a16z.com/2014/07/11/from-rap-genius-to-genius-2/
Marc Andreessen's note: https://genius.com/1102682
Re:Spotify, Nodding to Broader Ambitions, Hires Chief Conten...
by dsnuh on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @08:14PM
(#17404919)
Yes, I remember they tried to expand, but it didn't catch on.
I think it may be because at it's heart Genius feels to me like a skinned/specialized Wikipedia, and Wikipedia already has other information covered. Lyrics are a good fit, because Genius has a format that suits itself well to annotating lyrics, and it is a reliable source for quality lyric content. So many lyrics sites other than Genius are horrible to look at and usually are riddled with ads and popups.
This is also a cautionary lesson for founders about raising at inflated valuations--Genius's series B raise at close to a $1B post-money val will make it more difficult for them to exit with an acquisition.
(In fairness, they completed that round with the intent of "annotating the internet", not becoming the music content platform they've since pivoted to.)