for anyone who doesn't know the context of this, genius is a component of surveilance capitalism. if you really want to lyrical explanations of what's being said on genius, consider an alternative frontend like dumb, however, i would advize that genius frequently gets cultural references and slang blatantly wrong, frequently interpretting radical artists as more centrist, or even pro-capital, than they are
Surveillance capitalism in this context would be how the "product" genuis is selling is your usage data, as opposed to what they seem to provide which is song lyrics.
You may have heard the phrase " if you arent paying for it then YOU are the product", An oversimplified version but the same idea.
Genuis is a tracking and metrics service for spotify and other rent seekers in the music industry, they do it by offering lyrics for "free" and tracking as much as they can about users who visit the site.
they also employ tracking cookies so that companies like facebook and google can learn about you, even if you don't directly patronize those services. it used to be to sell to advertizers to make more effective ads, but as that market dries up because it turns out the most effective advertising dollars are put towards billboards and radio, these digital marketing companies are making back the difference selling to brokers and companies who interact more with state based actors. that's effectively why palentir exists. the cia isn't allowed to spy on you, and technically neither is the nsa or fbi authorized to spy on you unless they've gotten a search warrant (which has been comically easy to do since 2002), there's nothing illegal and no legal grey area for a private company to spy on you and then the agencies to buy services from that company.
There's also this which isn't huge but has some stuff and is slowly growing https://github.com/Lyrics/lyrics-database. I occasionally contribute to it for fun because it's easier to do than on some of the big platforms
14 Comments
Quill7513@slrpnk.net · 77 pts · 296d
for anyone who doesn't know the context of this, genius is a component of surveilance capitalism. if you really want to lyrical explanations of what's being said on genius, consider an alternative frontend like
dumb, however, i would advize that genius frequently gets cultural references and slang blatantly wrong, frequently interpretting radical artists as more centrist, or even pro-capital, than they arebreakingcups@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 296d
Can you explain surveillance capitalism in this context to me?
gravitywell@sh.itjust.works · 42 pts · 296d
Surveillance capitalism in this context would be how the "product" genuis is selling is your usage data, as opposed to what they seem to provide which is song lyrics.
You may have heard the phrase " if you arent paying for it then YOU are the product", An oversimplified version but the same idea.
Genuis is a tracking and metrics service for spotify and other rent seekers in the music industry, they do it by offering lyrics for "free" and tracking as much as they can about users who visit the site.
Quill7513@slrpnk.net · 18 pts · 296d
they also employ tracking cookies so that companies like facebook and google can learn about you, even if you don't directly patronize those services. it used to be to sell to advertizers to make more effective ads, but as that market dries up because it turns out the most effective advertising dollars are put towards billboards and radio, these digital marketing companies are making back the difference selling to brokers and companies who interact more with state based actors. that's effectively why palentir exists. the cia isn't allowed to spy on you, and technically neither is the nsa or fbi authorized to spy on you unless they've gotten a search warrant (which has been comically easy to do since 2002), there's nothing illegal and no legal grey area for a private company to spy on you and then the agencies to buy services from that company.
breakingcups@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 296d
Alright, thanks. Doesn't AZLyrics do the same thing? Offer lyrics for free to offer your behavior and your eyeballs to advertisers?
gravitywell@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 296d
Probably just less of it but yes. Thats why people use privacy front ends like dumb instead.
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 296d
Maybe they're less good at it
regdog@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 296d
Good explanation
tetris11@feddit.uk · 14 pts · 296d
I can't find dumb, do you have link?
Adverse_Reaction@anarchist.nexus · 16 pts · 296d
https://github.com/rramiachraf/dumb
you can also achieve the same, and much more with the LibRedirect browser extension:
https://libredirect.github.io/
turbowafflz@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 296d
There's also this which isn't huge but has some stuff and is slowly growing https://github.com/Lyrics/lyrics-database. I occasionally contribute to it for fun because it's easier to do than on some of the big platforms
Qkall@lemmy.ml · 8 pts · 296d
no songmeanings.com, ok...
tetris11@feddit.uk · 4 pts · 296d
I don't even know what's right anymore
SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 6 pts · 296d
azl has better lyrics and is a less shitty site