I've always considered their annotations to be a cute little novelty that's otherwise pointless, and Rap Genius itself a case study in a startup for no reason, so to get all the money they've gotten from investors, I imagine their presentation must be pretty damn impressive.
It just feels like the media and investors want them to succeed (hence the paid-for fluff pieces such as the posted one), but no one else gives a shit. How many of your friends are actually using Rap Genius?
I prefer it over other lyrics sites just because it's the nicest one that I know of. That being said, I'm don't have an account and never go to the site directly. Just more likely to click on the link from a search.
I like to listen to music that was clearly personal when it was originally written. I use genius a bit, because the only alternative is songmeanings.com, and genius is clearly better, when it has the content I'm looking for.
From hearing Ilan Zechory speak, it sounded like they landed their breakthrough investment with A16z after a whole lot of relationship cultivation, not so much an individual pitch. I don't know much about Ben Horowitz as a person, but to hear Zechory say it, he basically was a massive fan of their product itself and a kindred spirit with the founders.
I don't see them changing the world, but I do believe they're worth something as a company. They've built the world's best lyrics site, after all, and they've got Disqus-like potential as a pluggable annotation platform. Lastly, in their community, they have a constituency that's probably fairly unique, and I think that's a significant value too.
Ever since I heard about Betteridge's Law of Headlines, I can't stop applying it. It basically says the answer to any headline that is a question will be "no," because otherwise a demonstrative statement would sell better. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline...
I don't know, but I would like to. There's a large body of text I would like to read comments on. Heck, even videos and music (not only lyrics). Annotated Matrix or Neon Genesis Evangelion?
These comments and analyzes sometimes exist, but they take the form of huge definitive volumes which kinds of put the damper on how much can be produced, and to their diffusions. What if anyone with a bit of knowledge could annotate a document, wikipedia-style? That's something I would like very much.
It sounds like a good idea. As with any website like this, it's success will depend on whether, on the average, when people look for information on the site, they find it and/or are entertained. So many ways this can go wrong with user generated contact. I hope they succeed in taking this beyond rap. They should have kept "rap" in the name
I don't think they have the personality to bring users over 22 to the site. The super-hip parties and don't-give-a-shit attitude works great for attracting pop-culture based young-ins but I feel those of us a bit less enticed by flash won't find a place there.
The Rap Genius site is a clever idea, but the interesting and insightful annotations are completely drowned out by the lousy comments and dumb pictures people decided to upload for base topics like money, or someone's appearance.
I've always considered their annotations to be a cute little novelty that's otherwise pointless, and Rap Genius itself a case study in a startup for no reason, so to get all the money they've gotten from investors, I imagine their presentation must be pretty damn impressive.
It just feels like the media and investors want them to succeed (hence the paid-for fluff pieces such as the posted one), but no one else gives a shit. How many of your friends are actually using Rap Genius?