Lyric Annotation Company Genius Acquired For $80 Million by MediaLab

In a move that was first reported to Bloomberg earlier this week, Los-Angeles-based MediaLab has acquired popular lyrics company Genius for $80 million.

Originally launched as Rap Genius with a focus on hip hop, the company has expanded since its inception to encompass all genres while continuing to provide high-level community annotations to song lyrics.

Over two million users have contributed to Genius in total. Additionally, the company has begun to branch out into producing its own original content both written and video recently. The effort represents a new rebranding and restructuring of Genius and its content as the scale of its community and impact continues to grow.

In 2020 the brand launched Genius Live, an interactive live streaming platform that hosts live concerts and artist events.

This acquisition suggests that the company stands to benefit from its progressive media strategy with an influx of new funding. MediaLab is a holding company of many consumer internet brands.

While users may see some changes in the coming months at the platform, we expect Genius to remain the dominant lyrics service that it has become over the last decade.