We traditionally refer to Genius as a ‘lyric-focused’ company, but its ambitions clearly stretch some way beyond that. Witness its hiring this month of Joshua Asen, formerly an exec at Discovery Science Channel, as the company’s first head of TV and film. It’s part of Genius’ push into developing longer-form content.
“We’re building on the momentum Genius has established with our digital series like Verified and Deconstructed to tell bigger stories about artists and how music pushes culture forward,” chief strategy officer Ben Gross told The Hollywood Reporter. “We’re excited to work with Joshua to share them on TV, film and streaming platforms.” Asen certainly sounds like he’ll fit in well at Genius: “My college thesis was literally an annotated French translation of the Notorious B.I.G.’s ‘Ready to Die’,” he explained.
Recent years have seen something of a bonfire of new-media firms getting into video content, only to get out some time later after failing to make it pay off. Here’s hoping Genius can buck that particular trend with its new projects.
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