Genius has been a hub for meaning and context behind music since it was founded in 2009. Today, Genius announced a collaboration with Instagram that bridges its lyric-explainer content with short-form videos, called Lyric Reels.
Genius has an abundance of videos on its YouTube channel that includes performances, artists explaining their lyrics, producers explaining their process, Genius staff decoding music news, and more. Lyric Reels will now fit what Genius is best known for—artists telling the stories behind their lyrics—into 15-second clips soon to be found all over Instagram.
Genius brought big artists in for the debut like Megan Thee Stallion who kicks off today with content on “Body,” a hit song from her new, fiery album Good News. This is no surprise as Genius already features top music names like Billie Eilish, Cardi B and John Legend.
Other artists to debut in the first set of Lyric Reels include 24kGoldn and Tate McRae.
Lyric Reels won’t only be on Instagram. While Genius’s website tends to include context and comments from listeners via text, now Lyric Reels will be integrated into the pages for select songs, like “Body,” offering video annotation.
Instagram only rolled out Reels in August—amid the U.S.’s potential TikTok ban, eventually resolved when Oracle
ORCL became the buyer. Already, Reels is a close competitor with TikTok. It lets users to create 15-seconds videos with the special visual effects and a massive variety of sounds, just like TikTok.
While Genius already used Reels, it wasn’t as focused of an approach because of the wide variety of music-themed content, from memes to interview snippets. Lyric Reels will not only help Genius develop its brand, popularity and relevance, but this will be a great way for artists to be promoted.
The rollout of its lyric-explainer videos on Instagram marks a mass transition to short-form content. Part of this shift is being driven by habits of the pandemic. Some research found that the pandemic has driven the desire for digital distraction and binge watching.
Not only can Genius hop on this trend with Lyric Reels, but Genius also has a huge chance to capitalize on the fact that music is one of the most-watched categories of short form content.
