It seems as if almost every streaming app is locking more and more features behind its paywalls. Following in the footsteps of Netflix, Spotify is now taking another free feature away from its users, and it’s also a beloved one: lyrics.
This isn’t exactly a new change, as Spotify previously tested lyrics as a premium feature back in September 2023, but now the test has expanded to more users across the globe. This means that more users are now locked out of the lyrics feature on the free tier and it is only a matter of time before it becomes a problem for more.
The news comes from several social media posts on Reddit and other platforms alike, complaining about how lyrics are suddenly behind a paywall.
Spotify typically obtains lyrics directly from songwriters, publishers, and independent artists. For most other situations, the company collaborates with MusixMatch to supply lyrics. It’s possible that Spotify is reluctant to bear the expenses associated with this partnership, which might be why lyrics have been placed behind a paywall. This change diminishes the attractiveness of the service for users on the free tier.
This means that Spotify Freemium is now a radio app that permanently plays songs on shuffle which are only allowed to be skipped six times within an hour. This automatically makes YouTube Music’s free tier a better alternative than free Spotify, since users can skip songs unlimited times, read song lyrics, skip ads, and are not forced to shuffle their songs like Spotify.
If you are not seeing this paywall yet, it is probably only a matter of time before it reaches you too.
