Rap Genius is particularly awesome because it kind of started as a legal hack (you can't just publish lyrics directly, due to copyright, but crowdsourced line by line like this is ok), but then turned into something far more useful than the existing (legal, regulated, expensive) alternatives.
I mean, they have Nas and others coming on the site as Verified Artists explaining their own songs.
$15mm is a lot of money, but it was probably a situation of Rap Genius having enough growth to command a high valuation, and a16z needing a certain percentage to make their investment acceptable to themselves.
Basically Rap Genius developed a feature that Andreessen himself wanted to build directly into the browser in 1993! Whole thing makes a lot more sense with that context
I didn't know Rap Genius was a YC graduate, but I should have -- what they're doing is basically what every lyrics site of questionable legality should have been doing years ago, and they're doing it very well.
SongMeanings specifically comes to mind as a site which seems to have stagnated considerably after initially having a strong basis of user contribution.
I mean, they have Nas and others coming on the site as Verified Artists explaining their own songs.
$15mm is a lot of money, but it was probably a situation of Rap Genius having enough growth to command a high valuation, and a16z needing a certain percentage to make their investment acceptable to themselves.