Spotify: lyrics now only available to Premium subscribers 🎤

Cliquez ici pour lire en français

Over the past few days, Spotify users have been affected by a significant change: the display of song lyrics is now only available to Premium subscribers. This decision, taken without any official communication on the part of the Swedish platform, has given rise to much criticism and questioning.

Restricted access to music lyrics ⛔

From now on, non-Premium users can no longer view the lyrics of the tracks they are listening to. This feature, previously available to all, has become an exclusive privilege of paying subscribers. On the web version of Spotify, it is clearly indicated that lyrics display is a feature reserved for premium users. On the Windows application, on the other hand, a simple error message is displayed.

However, on the Android app, lyrics are still available, albeit subject to a monthly limit. After listening to five tracks, a message indicates that the lyrics limit for the month has been reached.

Spotify’s lack of transparency 😡

This decision to restrict access to lyrics has provoked a wave of indignation among free users. Many criticize the lack of transparency on the part of Spotify, which has neither made the change official nor explained its reasons for doing so.

Some users also point out the discriminatory aspect of this measure, particularly for hearing-impaired people who rely on lyrics to follow the music.

The reasons behind this choice are not clearly stated, but two hypotheses emerge. On the one hand, it could serve to encourage more users to opt for paid subscription. On the other, it could be a strategy to absorb the costs associated with this feature. Indeed, Spotify has entered into a partnership with MusixMatch for the lyrics, the cost of which remains unknown.

This change makes the free Spotify experience less and less attractive. In addition to the ads, users are now limited in what they can do, including the order in which songs are played and the number of skips allowed per hour.

Do you use the app? What do you think of Spotify’s decision? Tell us in the comments.