歌词达人Rap Genius：歌词界的维基百科

你有相信做歌词网站也可以拿投资，而且还是巨额投资吗？估计你不太相信，但是Rap Genius真的拿到了著名天使投资人Ben Horowitz 的1500万美元投资。看到这个新闻你可能会想，“这个叫什么笨（Ben）的人是个笨蛋吧？钱太多没地儿花吧！”
  你还别说，他还真是有很多钱，但是他绝对不是个笨蛋。他是谁？我这么跟你说吧，他分分钟都可以让整个硅谷沸腾，还不明白？好吧，如果刚刚那句台词太过抽象，又没有字幕你听不懂。那我就来点具体的，Ben Horowitz和Marc Andreessen联合创立了风险投资公司Andreessen Horowitz，这不是重点，重点是这家投资公司投资过Skype, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Foursquare, Pinterest, Airbnb, Fab, Groupon以及Zynga，看明白了吗？全是当今的明星公司，这就是Ben Horowitz。
  Rap Genius是干什么的？怎么说呢，你可以把它看做是歌词界的维基百科，所有用户都可以在Rap Genius的网站上给歌词作注释，写出你对某句歌词的理解，就这么简单。 Ben Horowitz本人就是个rap铁杆粉丝，因此这也算是随了自己的兴趣吧。
  不过，喜欢归喜欢，做生意的，尤其是做风险投资的最终还是要赚钱的，不赚钱那不是坑爹吗？我们就来看看Rap Genius到底为什么值得投资。据消息人士透露Rap Genius是Y Combinator有史以来增长最快的孵化项目，而且Ben Horowitz说，Rap Genius的创始人很有远见，因为他们不仅仅想做歌词的注释，以后还会将注释范围拓展到整个世界的文本内容，所以Ben Horowitz投资Rap Genius不是心血来潮，而是有着深远的考虑。另外，Ben的合伙人Andreessen同样也表示，RapGenius所做的事情“潜力巨大”。
  Rap Genius的创始人Mahbod Moghadam表示，他们要创造“互联网的犹太法典”（ the Internet Talmud）。他们希望通过像维基百科那样的方式，让全世界的人去给文学、诗歌、《圣经》、政治演说、法律文本、学术论文和其他所有的文本作注释。
  Rap Genius目前的流量非常大，因为很多人会在听歌的时候，听到某句歌词觉得好听，但不知到歌曲的名字的时候，他们一般都会去网上搜索那句歌词，以找出歌名，还有的人干脆是用歌名找歌词，因为他们喜欢歌词。小编躺着中枪，不过现在我用一个叫Shazam的歌曲识别软件，但是有的时候还是会去找歌词。我相信很多人都对歌词很感兴趣。如果是这样，你要知道你并不孤独，甚至连Facebook的CEO马克·扎克伯格（Mark Zuckerberg）也是Rap Genius的忠实粉丝，因为他也对歌词也很感兴趣。
  歌词市场真的这么有潜力？
  去年，国外媒体就写过一篇文章，该文提到歌词有可能是互联网的下一座金矿，并提出了所谓的歌词2.0概念。目前，在挖这座潜在金矿的有两家公司比较出名，一家就是我们现在说的 Rap Genius， 还有一家是 TuneWiki。TuneWiki的发展势头也很猛，现在用户数已经超过600万。
  Rap Genius的联合创始人 Tom Lehman表示，歌词市场是一个被严重低估的市场。他说：“很多人不知道歌词到底有多流行，其实有非常多的人喜欢读歌词，理解歌词。”事实上，还真的是这样，在Google所有的搜索请求中，有2%的请求是在搜索歌词，而Bing的歌词搜索请求所占比例更大，达到了7%。在美国，人们用Google搜索歌词（“lyrics”）的次数仅次于“Facebook”这个词。
  国内歌词市场也不小
  目前，国内歌词市场需求也不小，当然因为有了酷狗等自动下载歌词的软件，需求比之前可能有所下降，但是需求还是有的，因为那样自动下载歌词总是会有满足不了的需求，比如只知道一两句歌词，想知道歌曲名字，就还得去搜索。另外，如果是英文歌或其他外文歌的歌词，有些人看不懂歌词，就会去网上找歌词翻译。
  国内歌词网站也不少，也有相当的市场需求，为什么这些网站就没有什么成绩呢？很简单，因为国内大部分歌词网站用户体验都非常差，我就不点名了，因为都差不多。几乎所有歌词网站都是充斥着无数的广告，打开页面，广告还弹来弹去，飘来飘去，非常影响用户心情，要找半天才能找到歌词。但是即使这样，这些歌词网站还是能生存，因为有需求，有流量。
  因此，很显然，国内歌词这个领域也是急需改变的。
  我们之前也说过，创业其实行业不最重要的，最重要的是要很好的满足用户的需求，而且要给用户带来惊喜，就像苹果公司，它的产品 “你都不知道自己需要，当它出现的时候，你却会说：‘这就是我想要的’”。我们就是要给用户这样的惊喜，才能创造奇迹。目前，国内歌词这个领域，就是这样一个需要惊喜的行业之一，你说呢？

..饒舌歌詞yoyoyo聽攏嘸？　美耶魯3高材生創rap翻譯網
不少人覺得饒舌（Rap）歌手唱歌時，不是口齒不清就是歌詞令人難以理解，彷彿「鴨子聽雷」般有聽沒有懂。美國耶魯大學3名高材生腦筋動得快，創了一個Rap歌詞翻譯網，就連臉書（Facebook）創辦人佐克伯( Mark Zuckerberg)也是網站常客。
對多數人來說，Rap歌詞給人的印象不外乎就是唸很快、聽不懂、憤世忌俗或是不斷「yoyoyo」，但又聽不出個所以然。3年前，穆加達姆、澤霍維及萊曼創立《Rap Genius》，網站內有大量Rap歌詞，以淺白的英文翻譯。
《Rap Genius》每日點擊率達15萬，才剛獲得科技公司投資1千5百萬美元（約4億4千萬元新台幣）。不僅吸引歌手、藝人需要了解歌詞，就連佐客伯也常到Rap歌詞網報到。澤霍維預測，網站將在1年內拿下全球最大的同類型網站。

Why lyrics are the consumer web’s next big thing, again
September 22, 2011 6:30 AM
The next big thing for the consumer web could actually come from one of its oldest content verticals: lyrics. Services like RapGenius and TuneWiki are spearheading a new way of publishing and making money from song lyrics.
Lyrics are a massively underestimated market segment, says Tom Lehman, co-founder of RapGenius, one of the progenitors of this “lyrics 2.0″ movement. “People don’t understand how popular lyrics are, and how much people like to read and understand them,” he says.
In fact, a staggering two percent of all Google search queries are for lyrics. The share of Bing’s pie is even larger, at seven percent. After ‘Facebook,’ the term ‘lyrics’ is the most common search term on Google in the US.
The existing lyrics services, spoiled by the high demand and dearth of disruptive thinking, have left the field wide open to those who see this shadow opportunity. Lehman referred to the shoddiness of existing lyric services as “so bad, it’s a meme.” Indeed, most of the incumbents, topped by MetroLyrics, AZlyrics and Sing365, hail from a bygone era of the web where banner ads, popups and poorly conceived user experiences were the norm.
Lehman describes the system as fundamentally broken. “Rather than pummeling users with ringtone ads, which are scams anyway, why not take a longer-term approach?” he asks, referring to monetization strategies based on stirring peoples’ passions about artists and their music.
Yet these existing players still manage to command incredibly high traffic. The world’s highest-trafficked lyrics site, MetroLyrics, sees over 31 million monthly unique visitors according to Quantcast and Alexa estimates. Such traffic, despite their relatively unchanged and low quality experiences, shows that anyone who’s able to deliver value from innovative uses of lyrics has a chance to reap big rewards.
A Blueprint for “Lyrics 2.0″
At the core of the new offerings is a basic re-imagining of how people interact with lyrics. According to Lehman, existing sites tend to view lyric queries as a “superficial reference” type of activity where users merely try to confirm what they hear (is that really a bathroom on the right?). In his experience, that view is overshadowed by a deeper desire to connect, engage and even obsess about lyrics through analysis and discussion.
RapGenius’s product caters to that new context, seeking to build knowledge and community through user-populated, highly detailed in-line explanations of lyrics, especially rap and hip-hop lyrics, which often have insider references and other deep meanings that are seldom understood on the first listen.
So far, more than 30,000 users have signed up to discover, interpret, explain, and debate lyrics with one another. More than 10,000 songs are fully explained by the community, some songs being viewed tens of thousands of times with contrasting interpretations and viewpoints on key lines. The site expects to reach over 5 million monthly unique visitors soon.
The site design is minimal and modern, a clear departure from existing services, which took aesthetic cues from the big sites of their heyday, making RapGenius more Tumblr than Altavista. The well-conceived layout with its intuitive highlights and bubble overlays is perfect for the infusion of explanations, analyses, context and criticisms to song lyrics. The same approach is envisioned for their upcoming mobile experience, which already sees 17 percent of site traffic (redirecting to the desktop version at the moment).
James Hritz, vice-president of monetization at TuneWiki, another social music company that’s placing big bets on lyrics 2.0, corroborates the trend. “Lyrics are about self-expression, community and learning,” he says, pointing to RapGenius as a service that “gets” this need. His own firm is radically re-envisioning its lyrics offerings to provide deeper, more meaningful experiences to music consumers in the vein of RapGenius.
TuneWiki has already learned a lot about how powerful lyrics can be. With a user base that’s 60 percent international, many flock to the service to use lyrics as a tool to learn English. Since TuneWiki’s software can directly translate its database of more than 4 million fully licensed lyrics to any of 45 different languages, people can hear their favorite tracks in English and read the lyrics in their native tongue. The site’s Lyric Legend iPhone Game that debuted last year was an early demonstration of how lyrics have disruptive powers companies like MetroLyrics simply haven’t executed on.

群包网站Rap Genius获1500万美元投资
10月4日消息，据路透社报道，风投资本家本·霍洛维茨（Ben Horowitz）旗下的风投基金Andreessen Horowitz周三宣布向Rap Genius投资1500万美元。Rap Genius是使用群包方式研究说唱歌曲及详细解释晦涩歌词意思的网站。
霍洛维茨在接受电话采访时称，Rap Genius解释说唱歌词如同《Talmud》（犹太法典）翻译《旧约全书》。Rap Genius也在慢慢将业务扩大到其他领域，如文学、政治演讲和科学文献。霍洛维茨的同事马克·安德利森（Marc Andreessen）在宣布此项投资的博客上称：“我们认为，该社区将继续扩大，从说唱音乐扩大到任何文化领域。”
去年霍洛维茨在访问企业发展指导项目Y Combinator时，首次遇到了Rap Genius的联合创始人吗哈伯德·莫格哈丹（Mahbod Moghadam）、伊兰·泽科里（Ilan Zechory）和汤姆·莱曼（Tom Lehman）。此三人都是在耶鲁大学读书时认识的。目前还不清楚Rap Genius的盈利模式，霍洛维茨称该公司的业务模式为TBD（未确定）。
霍洛维茨表示：“如果他们的使命获得成功，他们最终将解释整个互联网，拥有巨大的用户群。”他认为，到那时就会知道如何盈利。Andreessen Horowitz是3年前成立的风投基金，今年1月该公司宣布融资15亿美元，这也是其第三次融资。
Andreessen Horowitz已投资了一些美国最热门的新创公司，包括在线图片分享网站Pinterest和社交网络巨头Facebook。

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