Digital media and lyrics company Genius (previously Rap Genius) has teamed up with Apple to show its popular video series Verified on Apple Music.
Genius has produced more than 800 episodes of the show since 2016. The show features popular artists breaking down the lyrics to their own songs. Artists who have appeared include Billie Eilish, Sting, and Chance the Rapper.
The deal means that Apple will co-produce new episodes. These will be premiere exclusively on Apple Music. Artists including Alec Benjamin, Yung Baby Tate, Caroline Polachek, Duke Deuce, Olivia Rodrigo, “and many more to come” are all promised for future instalments.
Benjamin (discussing his song “Mind Is A Prison”) and Yung Baby Tate (explains “CAMO”) are the two stars whose episodes debuted Tuesday.
Apple Music is all about the artists
News of this new video series follows iOS 13’s introduction of a real-time lyrics feature. This turns Apple Music into a karaoke experience. It lets users view scrolling song lyrics for the music they listen to.
Apple previously debuted a similar music video feature. In September 2019, it launched a “Lyrics to Live By” video series. The video series features artists explaining the meaning of some of their best known lines.
Apple first partnered with Genius to offer lyric annotations back in October 2018. “Being able to read lyrics and annotations on Genius while you listen along on Apple Music is a dream Genius experience,” Ben Gross, the chief strategy officer of Genius, said at the time.
Can Genius’ Verified help increase Apple Music numbers?
Moves like this are designed to help further differentiate Apple Music from its competition. While music subscription services largely offer the same selection of tracks, exclusives such as this can help add more incentives to stick with a particular service.
Apple Music had over 60 million customers when the company last released figures in June 2019. Spotify, meanwhile, reported 113 million paid subscribers in September. Amazon Music is also making gains. This month it revealed that it has surpassed 55 million customers.
Source: Apple Music
