Lyrics startup Genius has entered a partnership with Apple that will bring an Apple Music web player to Genius.com, letting subscribers of the music service access full-length versions on the site. In addition, Apple is also adding Genius lyrics to its music service.
“Being able to read lyrics and annotations on Genius while you listen along on Apple Music is a dream Genius experience,” said Genius chief strategy officer Ben Gross in a statement. “We’re proud to make Apple Music our official music player, and we’re doubly excited to bring Genius lyrics to their amazing platform.”
Apple Music’s web player went live on the desktop version of Genius.com Thursday; the player is also available to users who access the site with their iPhone’s Safari browser or via the Genius iOS app. Playback on Android is not currently supported.
Paying Apple Music subscribers have to log in with their Apple Music credentials to access full-length versions of songs via the web player. Everyone else gets to hear 30-second previews. In addition, Genius will continue to embed official music videos from YouTube when available.
Genius was founded in 2009. Called Rap Genius at the time, the site set out to be a kind of Wikipedia of rap rhymes, giving users tools to easily annotate and explain song lyrics. The company has raised around $79 million in funding thus far, including a new $15 million round of funding from Everblue Management earlier this year.