May 7, 2024, 12:02 pm | Read time: 3 minutes
Sometimes it’s the little things that bring the greatest comfort. This is also true for a practical feature of Spotify, which the music streaming service apparently plans to remove from the freemium subscription.
They pop up again and again: songs that get stuck in your head, but whose lyrics are chronically misunderstood. One of the best examples might be “Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Cheese” by Eurythmics. Who doesn’t like dreaming of cheese? However, a look at Spotify’s lyrics display clarifies that it is, of course, “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This.” But apparently, Spotify plans to remove this display from the free subscription.
Spotify Places Lyrics Behind Paywall
The Swedish music streaming service first introduced the practical lyrics feature at the end of 2021. For the synchronized display of lyrics, Spotify collaborates with Musixmatch—except in Japan, where PetitLyrics licenses and synchronizes the lyrics. Artists can upload their lyrics to Musixmatch for free. Spotify may now want to pass the associated costs onto Spotify users.
Initial indications of this were found as early as fall 2023. At that time, some freemium subscribers reported that instead of lyrics, they received the message “Enjoy lyrics on Spotify Premium.” A Spotify spokesperson then mentioned a test run affecting only a few users in select markets. Now, the test phase seems to be over.
Currently, several reports on Reddit indicate that users without a premium subscription can view no or only a limited number of lyrics. In response to an inquiry from the U.S. magazine TechCrunch, Spotify vaguely stated that Spotify features can vary by market and device. Thus, it is still unclear if, when, and in what form Spotify plans to restrict the lyrics display in the German market.
Some users report on X that the lyrics feature is limited to a monthly quota. This is similar to the song-skipping feature, which in a freemium subscription only allows skipping a song six times per hour.
Spotify’s User Numbers Grow
Whether this is a temporary solution or the future direction remains to be seen. So far, the lyrics are not listed among the relevant premium features. It is also questionable whether restricting the lyrics can actually motivate users to switch to a paid subscription. After all, song lyrics are available everywhere online and through apps like Genius or Shazam.
In the worst case, Spotify users might take this restriction as a reason to switch to another music streaming service like YouTube Music or Tidal. Numerically, Spotify is currently doing well with about 600 million active users worldwide per month. Of these, 236 million have a premium subscription, which represents a 15 percent growth compared to 2023. The paid lyrics are likely to bring Spotify only a small increase, while they represent a moderate inconvenience for freemium users.