Gone are the days of having to Google songs you’ve to look up their lyrics.
Streaming giant Spotify have teamed up with lyrics analysis website Genius (formerly Rap Genius,) to introduce lyrics commentary into the streaming platform, allowing listeners to delve further than ever into the music they’re listening to.
The first introduction to the newly paired services comes in the form of four “Behind the Lyrics” playlists. One curated hip-hop playlist, and artist-driven playlists by Pusha T, Tinashe and Diplo. The tracks in each playlist come with annotated lyrics.
Although not yet available for Android, the Spotify iPhone app sees annotations generated when a user streams a track on the new ‘Behind the Lyrics’ playlists. Rather than the track’s accompanying artwork, the lyrics will be displayed. As per the usual Genius annotations, lyrics with commentary are highlighted and expanded.
Genius founder Tom Lehman explains how it works: “For this integration we stripped Genius down to its essence with a new product we call the Fact Track. It’s like a soundtrack… but with more facts!
“Fact Tracks play along with the music, which limits the amount of information we can show, but also allows us to give you the facts unfiltered and straight into your soul windows. No tapping, no clicking, just LEAN BACK”:
Okay, maybe I’m just a long, long time Genius fangirl, but this is a seriously cool innovation – one that will hopefully spread far within the streaming service. Particularly when it comes to hip-hop and cryptic indie lyrics, learning about and discussing the meaning behind songs takes the music to a whole new level.
The partnership also opens up countless exciting new routes for marketing, artist/release promotion, and communication between artists and users. Many artists have hopped on to annotate lyrics on Genius themselves, notably including Eminem, RZA and super-producer Rick Rubin.
For Spotify to incorporate Genius into its full service would not only add an entirely new level to the streaming experience, but totally sets it apart from its competitors. I for one, am really excited to see what’s coming next.