Apple Inks Pact for Genius ‘Verified’ Artist Interview Series, Which Will Premiere Exclusively on Apple Music
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Apple Music subscribers will get the first crack at Genius’ original show “Verified,” which features artists explaining the lyrics and meaning behind their biggest songs.
Under the deal, Apple Music will co-produce and exclusively premiere “Verified” episodes each weekday. Genius will post the episodes, co-branded with Apple Music, to its YouTube channel within 24 hours.
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Genius debuted “Verified” in 2016 and to date has produced more than 850 episodes with artists including Lil Nas X, Billie Eilish, J Balvin, Ice Cube, Chance the Rapper, Big Shaq, Sting and Cardi B. The musicians sit down in front of the show’s signature yellow backdrop to discuss the vision, creativity, and craft behind their songs.
Apple Music’s deal to license “Verified,” set to run at least one year, is the latest expansion of the partnership between Apple and Genius, which maintains and licenses a database of annotated lyrics. Apple Music is currently the official music player on Genius.com; in addition, Genius is an official lyrics partner for Apple Music, which includes of the Genius lyrics for many songs directly in its app.
“We see a bright yellow future where every hit song on Apple Music has a companion ‘Verified’ episode featuring the lyrics and meaning, straight from the artists themselves,” Genius chief strategy officer Ben Gross said. “This is the first step towards that reality.”
Apple Music’s exclusive premieres of “Verified” starts Tuesday (Feb. 4) with the two latest episodes: Alec Benjamin breaking down his song “Mind Is a Prison” and Yung Baby Tate dissecting her track “CAMP.” Upcoming episodes will feature Caroline Polachek, 24kGoldn, and Olivia Rodrigo. Episodes of “Verified” typically run 5-8 minutes.
For Apple, the deal for Genius’ “Verified” is part of its ongoing efforts to bring exclusive content to Apple Music subscribers amid competition from major competitors like Spotify, Google/YouTube and Amazon.
Apple Music will list episodes of “Verified” on artist pages and the tech giant also will experiment with other ways to promote the show. There’s also a landing page (accessible via apple.co/GeniusVerified) for the show.
Watch the trailer for “Verified” on Apple Music above, or at this link.
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