Apple Music gets cosy with Genius' lyric site

Genius.com Apple Music

Apple Music subscribers got a boost of lyrical support this week, after the streaming service announced a partnership with the online lyrics database Genius.com.

Subscribers to Apple's music platform will now find Genius-sourced lyrics accompanying most of the tracks in their iOS app on iPhone or iPad. 

Users will also be able to see further tidbits about the artists and annotations explaining slang and phrases of particular note.

A blog post from Genius.com clarified that there's no immediate way to tell which lyrics in the Apple Music app are from Genius and which are from other sources, due to both having the same text formatting, but that "there may be updates on this in the future". 

Just the two of us

Having originally started as a small online project, Genius has vastly expanded into a comprehensive database for song lyrics and community-sourced annotations, much like a Wikipedia for the ears. 

Spotify subscribers may have noticed that they already get Genius-sourced lyrics shown in the Spotify app during songs, displaying both the lyrics themselves and background information about the song and artist.

What makes the partnership with Apple different is that Genius has returned the favor, making Apple Music the official streaming service for Genius.com. 

Anyone visiting the Genius website can now connect to their Apple Music account and play available songs right out of their browser - a canny move given Apple and Spotify's heated competition for paid users. 

Henry St Leger

Henry is a freelance technology journalist, and former News & Features Editor for TechRadar, where he specialized in home entertainment gadgets such as TVs, projectors, soundbars, and smart speakers. Other bylines include Edge, T3, iMore, GamesRadar, NBC News, Healthline, and The Times.