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Spotify launches annotated lyrics feature with Genius

By | Published on Wednesday 13 January 2016

Spotify Genius

Spotify has launched another new feature that isn’t one of the new features it promised last May (whatever happened to that list?), this one a hook up with lyric annotation site Genius. A series of special playlists will offer “lyrical excerpts, fun facts, annotations, and stories straight from the artists and from the Genius community”.

You can join me in guessing what that might be like in practice, because it only works on iOS and the app on my phone hasn’t updated yet. But you can listen to the playlists without the new feature, like you would any other, and maybe that’s just as much fun.

The main one is the compilation ‘Behind The Lyrics (Hip Hop)’. But you can (/will be able to) get a behind the scenes/lyrical look at the work of specific artists too. Right now there are special playlists set up for Pusha T, Tinashe and (because no new Spotify feature can launch without him) Diplo.

“I’ve partnered with Genius and Spotify to take you ‘Behind The Lyrics’ of my greatest songs because every word that I write means something to me. Together we’ve found a way to bring my fans a deeper listening experience and raise the bar for songwriters”, says Pusha T, hinting at what the experience might be like.

“Spotify and Genius are creating a really cool connection between me and my fans on another level than I normally can connect with them”, enthuses Tinashe. “Not only are they able to hear the music and see the lyrics, but they are also able to understand where I was coming from when I wrote them and kind of get inside my head, which is really cool”.

And Diplo: “Being a producer and writer, I really love to see how some songs resonate with fans from the feeling/meaning or just sound of the records. I have always been a person that dissects music and studies it. I was a sample spotter and I learned how to make music by listening to it. Genius and Spotify are working together to break down music to the bare bones and get deeper into its true core”.

In case you wondered, you can still pop up the boring old unannotated lyrics on your Spotify screen as well, if you want, with those still provided by Musixmatch.



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