4 ms·
Smart move for Spotify, foreboding news for Genius. This is also a cautionary lesson for founders about raising at inflated valuations--Genius's series B raise
by traek 8y ago
Smart move for Spotify, foreboding news for Genius.
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.)
- mattj1 8y agoDidn't it start as a music annotation platform?
- dsnuh 8y agoYes, it was originally called Rap Genius.
- traek 8y agoYes, 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/ https://a16z.com/2014/07/11/from-rap-genius-to-genius-2/ Marc Andreessen's note: https://genius.com/1102682 https://genius.com/1102682
- dsnuh 8y agoYes, 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.
- CPLX 8y agoThe 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.