By: Nick Gambino
Adding a lyrics feature to Spotify was one of the best things the music streamer ever did. On the flip side, charging for that same lyrics feature was one of the dumbest things. Thankfully, Spotify is rectifying that grave mistake.
Spotify first introduced the ability to read along with lyrics to your favorite songs back in November 2021. Partnering up with Musicxmatch, they hit the ground running, providing real-time lyrics to most of your favorite songs. It was instantly popular (albeit flawed) as users didn’t have to put in the extra work of hitting up Genius or Google to find the lyrics.
Then Spotify decided to begin testing the silly idea of placing the popular feature behind a paywall. In other words, if you had a free account instead of a paid Premium account, you would lose access to the running lyrics. Or more specifically, you’d only be able to view lyrics to three songs a month unless you upgraded.
This unpopular test began in September 2023 and was rolled out more widely in May 2024, suggesting maybe they were planning on making this a permanent thing. Now Spotify has announced that they are once again making lyrics free for all.
“At Spotify, we’re always testing and iterating,” a Spotify spokesperson said by way of TechCrunch. “This means the availability of our features can vary across tiers and between markets and devices. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be expanding lyrics availability for Spotify Free users so more people can enjoy viewing more lyrics, globally.”
It’s not clear at the moment whether free users will gain full access like those with a Premium account, but it’s definitely going to be more than three songs a month.
In a recent earnings call, Daniel Ek, Spotify’s CEO, stated that they’re looking to add more perks and features for free users. This is clearly one of them and a welcome change back to the way things were.
