Apple Music now the official music player for music news and lyric service Genius

By Mike Wuerthele

Starting on Thursday, not only will lyrics for many songs on Apple Music be provided by Genius, Apple Music subscribers who visit the service will be able to play any song in full right from the song page.

"Being able to read lyrics and annotations on Genius while you listen along on Apple Music is a dream Genius experience," said Ben Gross, Genius's Chief Strategy Officer. "We're proud to make Apple Music our official music player, and we're doubly excited to bring Genius lyrics to their amazing platform."

Genius launched in 2009 as Rap Genius with a focus on hip-hop. The service expanded in 2014 with an iPhone app release, alongside an expansion to other forms of media and genres of music. Starting in 2016, Genius began producing original video content focused on the music industry, and also began hosting live events and concerts.

The integration is possible because of Apple Music's new web player API. The API debuted at the 2018 WWDC, but was spotted on June 4 prior to the event.

It isn't clear which lyrics on Apple Music are provided by Genius as of yet, and there is no notation signifying that they are the source. Genius says that "thousands" of songs have data provided by the service.