AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
Apple CEO Tim Cook, right, hugs Beats by Dre co-founder and Apple employee Jimmy Iovine at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Monday, June 8, 2015.
- Genius' video series "Verified" is coming to Apple Music, a move that signals the tech giant is deepening its presence in the entertainment industry.
- "Verified" is a video series in which artists discuss the meaning being their songs. Apple will be co-producing episodes as well.
- The launch also comes as the competition between Apple and Spotify is heating up, although Spotify still remains firmly in the lead when it comes to global paid subscribers.
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Genius' video series "Verified" is coming to Apple Music, another move that expands the tech giant's reach in the entertainment world.
"Verified" is a video series in which artists discuss the meaning behind their song lyrics. Genius has produced 800 episodes so far, featuring artists such as Cardi B, Billie Eilish, and Chance the Rapper among others. Apple is also working with Genius to co-produce new episodes of the show, which will be available in the Apple Music app starting Tuesday with its most recent two episodes.
The launch comes as Apple has delved more deeply into entertainment, digital services, and original programming over the course of 2019. The company launched its first steaming television service called Apple TV Plus in November, which it unveiled at a star-studded event back in March. One of its series, "The Morning Show," which stars Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, was even nominated for two Golden Globe awards last month.
Apple also launched its own official music accolades in 2019 with the Apple Music Awards, in which Billie Eilish was named "Artist of the Year" and Lizzo took home the prize for "Breakthrough Artist of the Year."
The Genius show's debut on Apple Music comes as the competition between Apple and Spotify for dominance of the music streaming market is heating up. Apple broke the 60 million subscriber mark last year, but Spotify still far surpasses Apple with more than 100 million paid subscribers. Amazon is also catching up to Apple with 55 million Amazon Music customers.
Genius has also been working with Apple rival Spotify since 2016 when the two companies partnered to launch the "Behind the Lyrics" feature, which provides facts on screen about song lyrics as you're listening.
Services like Apple Music have become increasingly important for Apple over the past year in particular. When Apple was grappling with slowing iPhone sales throughout 2019 - a trend it recently broke with its fiscal first-quarter earnings report - it was the company's services business and wearables division that helped boost its revenue.
Apple's myriad announcements in 2019, from the launch of Apple TV Plus to the Apple Card's debut, sent the message that it wants to be just as highly regarded for its digital services as it is for its hardware. Investing in services like Apple Music by adding more programming like Genius' "Verified" is one way it's continuing to do so.
