
Rap Genius Raises $40M, Changes Name To Genius - yurisagalov
http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/11/just-genius/
======
daenz
Great for Rap Genius, but every time I read something about them, I think of
this interview
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NAzQPll7Lo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NAzQPll7Lo)

~~~
bane
Please tell me this was some kind of parody. A stage full of impossibly lame
"bro-schtick" cartoon characters and a live-action anime-style interviewer
complete with absurd hair. I wouldn't have trusted these clowns to heat up a
can of beans let alone put them in charge of millions of dollars and then
"value" their company at an amount of money that could build house and feed a
medium sized city for a decade.

I guess that goes to show what I know since they've executed pretty well and
can apparently evaluate literature.

Maybe I'm just getting old but man is it depressing.

~~~
dkarapetyan
Silicon Valley and general startup culture these days has very little actual
substance. If you don't have actual substance you have to substitute something
else for it. I can't really think of words to describe what the substitute is
but that linked video does a pretty good job.

------
nightpool
The original Business Insider article, with verified annotations from the
Genius co-founders: [http://www.businessinsider.com/the-inside-story-of-how-
rap-g...](http://www.businessinsider.com/the-inside-story-of-how-rap-genius-
fired-a-cofounder--and-just-raised-40-million-annotated-2014-7)

(and the HN comments page:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8022076](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8022076))

Also, we've been doing embeddable pages for a long time now! For example, see
our embed with the Alantic on Google's self-driving cars back in May:
[http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/google...](http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/google-
reveals-more-details-on-its-automotive-vision/371761/)

~~~
ghayes
When looking at the article on BI, I feel the annotations take away from the
flow of the article, rather than adding to it. I find myself constantly re-
reading entire paragraphs to get back to the story.

~~~
nightpool
Hm, interesting! I think this might be a function of the annotation size—we
try to keep single annotations short to maximize readability, but the author
of the article seems to be breaking this rule, and having 3 page+ annotations
definitely ends up detracting from the original text. (The one that stands out
to me is the one that explains the background of the founders, and then just
keeps going... And going... And going...) Its important to remember that this
was probably the BI author's first time using the platform though, and I found
the annotations from Tom, Ilan and Marc much more readable and concise.

~~~
JustinJBM
Agreed with OP. Wish you guys could come up with a different way to show text
is annotated. The highlight just grabs my attention way too much and it tells
my brain that "this is important" which isn't necessarily true with Genius
annotations. It works well for lyrics on rapgenius, but for content on news
and other websites not so much. I hope website owners will be able to pick
their own style.

------
oftenwrong
Hopefully the quality of the annotations will be better than on rap genius.
It's mostly bad attempts at humor and unnecessary slang translations. I don't
see the value in it.

~~~
flatline
In all fairness, most pop music is pretty vacuous. The _Wall_ annotations are
pretty good, a nice mix of references from the movie and personal anecdotes of
the band members, e.g. [http://rock.genius.com/Pink-floyd-nobody-home-
lyrics](http://rock.genius.com/Pink-floyd-nobody-home-lyrics)

~~~
sparkzilla
The annotations for "Nobody Home" are weak, pseudo-intellectual warblings with
very little added value.

"So far, the majority of the discussion of the song has focused on the discord
created by the alternating ideas of artistic yearning and mundane if not
altogether oppressive reality. But what of the chorus and its reiterations of
nobody home? Just who is Pink trying to reach when I pick up the phone?"

Who indeed. There may be other sectors where the annotations work better, but
that kind of "insight" doesn't make me want to go back.

------
antr
Question: is there any out-of-the-box product/technology that isn't Genius
that allows me to annotate text on my site? ala Medium, with user login, etc.?

~~~
ramykhuffash
LiveFyre Sidenotes let people add comments on a per-paragraph basis, which is
similar I guess:
[http://web.livefyre.com/streamhub/#liveSidenotes](http://web.livefyre.com/streamhub/#liveSidenotes)

------
pduszak
So basically this:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Sidewiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Sidewiki)

~~~
Slackwise
Almost. The concept was great, the implementation, not so much. Sad that
Google didn't improve upon it. (Then again, they're no longer an innovation
house, as I see it.)

------
dzink
I've owned Genieous.com for a number of years and it's been an empty page. Now
I know why the number of visits spiked recently :)

------
jgalt212
Is this an April Fool's Day joke, or a case study in failing upwards?

------
onewaystreet
Anyone else not like the black design? White would be more welcoming since
they are going for a more universal appeal.

~~~
anExcitedBeast
I wish more sites would adopt dark designs. Easier on the eyes and saves
energy. When you spend 8-16 hours in from of a monitor every day those become
important factors to consider.

~~~
sosborn
> saves energy

As far I understand this is not true. Can anyone smarter than me comment?

~~~
jckt
[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-
bl...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-black-is/)

I think it only saves energy on CRT screens, which is not popular these days.

~~~
guelo
Some of the phone screen technologies such as AMOLED also save power with
black.

------
sergiotapia
I thought there were three founders? Did they really just write off the third
that got kicked off and no longer even mention him as a founder? Ice cold
baby! Ice cold!

~~~
bcohen5055
"It’s taken a few stumbles and one less founder to get here, but Genius tells
me “we’re psyched to pursue our mission of global annotation with newfound
vigor.”"

Mentioned but hidden...

~~~
sergiotapia
Curious, feel kind of sorry for him.

~~~
famousactress
I hope that's because you didn't read about how why ended up leaving
[http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/26/rap-genius-co-founder-
resig...](http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/26/rap-genius-co-founder-resigns-
following-elliot-rodger-manifesto-annotations/)

And frankly, everything I've seen come out of rap-genius suggests that this
wasn't culturally aberrant there.

~~~
sergiotapia
I'm aware of why he was fired. I still feel sorry for him. I think a lot of
people overreacted over what he said, then again I'm not that familiar with
post 9-11 US culture.

~~~
sp332
It was really offensive, and he made the jokes right after people had been
_killed_ which was even more offensive, and he didn't even put it on his own
blog but injected that crap into the product.

~~~
iopq
So? People make fun of people dying all the time. I didn't feel his comments
were offensive. I thought it was actually true, since it seems like Elliot
Rodgers was angry at pretty women.

~~~
mitchell209
People take offense at everything nowadays. Obviously he was an idiot for
making jokes that anybody with common sense knows would offend people, but it
wasn't any more offensive than jokes other popular figures have said before.

------
ssanders82
About 5 years ago I submitted a post here asking for comments on an online
text discussion/annotation tool:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=821559](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=821559)

Rap Genius looks very similar; glad someone made this work.

------
chippy
I think annotations is a powerful idea. Imagine seeing all the annotations of
your favourite satirist, or politician. Instead of a thinker writing their own
blog, they could just annotate others - attacking, critiquing and defending.

This awesome power has to work with verification and moderation. No one likes
trolls, and no one likes those who do not contribute to the discussion - but
no one likes sterile, conformist, one-sided annotations either.

What my ideal annotation service would provide free expansion of ideas rather
than at best a kind of directors commentary.

------
0xeeeeeeee
I'm still very curious how they plan to make money. I guess we will have to
see...

In my opinion urban dictionary actually solves the same problem that Rap
Lyrics is solving except instead of explaining a whole sentence urban
dictionary explains one-a few words.

------
techaddict009
How much might have they spent on Domain?

~~~
onewaystreet
It must have been a real good offer because the former owner, publicly traded
CallidusCloud, just launched a major product using the domain last month:
[http://calliduscloud.com/about-us/press-releases/pr-
feed/cal...](http://calliduscloud.com/about-us/press-releases/pr-
feed/calliduscloud-launches-genius-com-content-store-and-mobile-learning-
platform/)

~~~
Isofarro
Which it acquired itself in February 2014:
[http://customerexperiencematrix.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/geniu...](http://customerexperiencematrix.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/genius-
and-loopfuse-are-acquired.html)

Interesting timing. I would not be surprised if the May launch of genius.com
was just something hacked together over a weekend and launched just to push
the domain price up.

There isn't much talk about genius.com around the May launch (apart from a bit
of press-release marketing). And the focus in acquisition in February leads
with LeadRocket, tacking on the brand Genius as an afterthought.

The domain details of genius.com was only switched to CallidusCloud's details
in June: [http://www.thedomains.com/2014/07/11/rapgenius-com-
upgrades-...](http://www.thedomains.com/2014/07/11/rapgenius-com-upgrades-
rebrand-to-genius-com/) \-- 4 months after acquiring the domain.

Interesting set of coincidences. I wonder when Callidus software knew of
RapGenius' interest in the genius.com domain. And their original intentions
for it when they acquired it in February.

------
computerjunkie
Great for them. Just a couple suggestions for the website is to change the
black colour scheme, possibly a lighter colour scheme.Viewing content can get
more challenging overtime because of the colour scheme. "Lit" could be changed
to "Literature", it doesn't make sense to name all other titles in full and
leave one out. But I guess they are still in beta for the genius.com domain.

------
joemaller1
Has Apple sued yet?

------
NickWarner775
I think it's a great idea to consolidate annotations for all kids of genres in
one site, but it will surely make their lives much harder trying to keep track
of all that. It's just so much more content than a company their size can
sustain.

~~~
nightpool
Actually, there hasn't been any changes to the amount of content on Genius, we
(the community) are just presenting it better! And while Genius has, off the
top of my head, about 20 employees (including 9 engineers), they have 150+
community moderators that oversee the site's community and hundreds of
community editors that are trusted with accepting and editing the site's
annotations. Genius isn't a small project!

~~~
incision
> _'...they have 150+ community moderators that oversee the site's community
> and hundreds of community editors that are trusted with accepting and
> editing the site's annotations...'_

Are these people paid anything?

Also, isn't 'project' generally suggestive of something a bit more open than a
VC-funded startup?

~~~
nightpool
No, no-one except the paid employees are paid. I mean, I suppose you could say
that we're all getting duped into providing value to a company, but I truly
believe in the strength of the Rap Genius mission, and I don't think that that
mission is irreconcilable with a for-profit company either—look at
StackOverflow, for example. They too are very heavily community dependent, and
have many contributors that don't get paid, but still provide the backbone of
the site.

~~~
sanitydc
what about the "strength of the Rap Genius Mission" makes you believe in
giving hours of your time to them for free? When they have some kind of an
exit with this product you will get nothing, they will get a fortune.

I don't understand you.

~~~
enjalot
there is more to life than money. some people value being part of a community,
helping others or creating their identity enough to spend lots of time on it.

money is a simplistic proxy for adding value to the world, try understanding
value instead of money and you might get richer yourself.

------
beedogs
When do they get sued by Gracenote, like all of the other lyrics sites of the
past decade?

------
warrenmiller
"embeddable annotations so any website can hover over text and see
explanations and background info on what that text means." Doesn't this exist
already, and for a while?

~~~
huffman
Don't lots of websites have links and comments? It's not about the
capabilities (which are a little more nuanced than "hover over text and see
explanations") it's about the quality and community which creates the content.

------
keehun
I wonder how much it cost them to get the domain name.

~~~
outericky
Probably under $100k... Location location location, am I right? Even if it was
more, that's your brand. As we've seen that search engines can make or break
you, this is one of the few things you can control.

~~~
nicklovescode
I'd be very surprised if 100k did the job. I would bet under $500k though.
Still worth it.

~~~
jonknee
Yes, for all those people that type in domain names... Unless they're doing a
print campaign, it's not a huge win. Hopefully they won't screw up the SEO on
this one.

~~~
robgibbons
Considering how Google punished them, moving to a new domain can only help.

------
unclesaamm
"The company also launched an iPhone app earlier this year that also helps
ween the startup off of Google’s teat."

Wow, really weird word choice.

------
beggi
Busy day for Dan Gilbert:
[http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/cavaliers/2014/07/1...](http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/cavaliers/2014/07/11/lebron-
james-cleveland-cavs-return-hometown-hero/12528973/)

------
aheilbut
Anyone remember Third Voice?

~~~
hboon
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Voice](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Voice).
The idea was ahead of its time. I remember it as a Singaporean company, but
the Wikipedia page is thin on details.

------
HistoryInAction
Sounds like a Vox-killer to me. Good riddance to those explainer cards!

------
infoseckid
Another useless service --- here comes the bubble.

~~~
mitchell209
Obviously useless to you, but it's by far the best lyric site for hip hop. And
with all of the subtle references in lyrics, the annotations can be invaluable
in helping casual listeners understand an artist's message.

------
snide
Can't help but be reminded of Entertainment 720 from the photos in this
article. Congrats on the funding!

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGSIf1KXGHs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGSIf1KXGHs)

For those that miss the reference.

~~~
diminoten
It also helps that one of the founders has a passing resemblance to Jean
Ralphio.

------
notastartup
Waiting for the bubble to burst.

------
smegmalife
Taking a queue from Diddy?

------
jqm
Whoever gave this band of clowns 40 million is extremely socially
irresponsible in my view.

Either that, or else they have a vested interest in social degradation. I
haven't made up my mind which I believe yet.

Yep I'm biased. I can't stand rap genius nor those nappy haired punks that run
it.

Some people might think this comment is simply ugly hatred. But it's a small
shadow of what I've seen spewing out of rap genius guys. Can't_Stand_Them!

~~~
boling11
Woah I'm taken aback at how hateful this comment is. What did these guys ever
do to you? At the bare minimum, Rap Genius is a huuuge step up from all the
other lyrics websites out there.

