Spotify has started only letting Premium users view song lyrics
Spotify users have been reporting a huge change to the service that appears to be affecting people who don't have a Premium subscription.
On Tuesday (5 September), Spotify users flocked to X - the app formerly known as Twitter - to complain about not being able to see the lyrics to the song they're listening to.
Music streamers begged Spotify for in-app lyrics for quite a while and the company began testing the feature out back in 2019.
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In November 2021, Spotify rolled out the new feature which allowed users to view and sing-along to the words of their favorite songs on both free and Premium versions and on all platforms.
It’s always handy when listening to your new obsession and sharing screenshots of lyrics has become a popular trend on social media, there’s even an X account called ‘lyrics you might relate to’ (@thesadbaby) that does just that.
As the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service with more than 551 million users - according to Spotify - there are a lot of people who love following the lyrics.
But that could all change, well at least for music lovers who use Spotify for free.
It’s not just the people who use Spotify for free who are complaining, Spotify Premium users are also baffled by the alleged change.
One sad Spotify user wrote: “I don't have Spotify premium and I love reading sleeping with sirens lyrics I'm heartbroken.”
A confused Spotify user complained: “No premium, no lyrics??????????? @Spotify.”
Someone else wrote: “My life's gonna fall apart now that even for lyrics I gotta pay for Spotify premium.”
A fourth person posted: "Am I the only one who's @Spotify lyrics are locked behind a premium?"
Spotify Premium users also took to social media to complain and remind the streaming service that you can easily find lyrics without using the app on countless websites.
One X user declared: “Lmao I have a Spotify premium subscription but this is so lame, you can just look up the lyrics on the internet. Bro."
While another posted: “As someone who needs to read while watching movies or listening to music to understand better this is trash. (I have Spotify premium already but everyone should have access to LYRICS).”
A third Spotify Premium user added: “Listen I have Spotify premium so this doesn’t affect me but… what was the reason. People without premium should still see the lyrics??? This doesn’t do anything but harm??”
Spotify free users already have to deal with adverts, which can be disruptive if you’re trying to have your very own concert at home for example, and users are limited on how many songs they can skip. However, it gives users free access to the service’s entire library of content.
When contacted for comment by UNILAD, a spokesperson at Spotify said: "At Spotify, we routinely conduct a number of tests, some of those tests end up paving the way for our broader user experience and others serve only as an important learning. We don’t have any further news to share at this time.”
Gregory Robinson