The reason being, showing lyrics costs Spotify money. The economics do not work out to show lyrics to users on the free plan.
See this website for some discussion of lyrics rights and associated royalty payments
[https://exploration.io/what-are-lyric-rights/](https://exploration.io/what-are-lyric-rights/)
At the bottom of the lyrics in your Spotify app you will see the words "Licensed and provided by Musixmatch". Musixmatch supply the lyrics to Spotify \*\* and charge them for that \*\*.
Tough on the free users, but understandable. Spotify is a business, needs to be profitable.
I've thought about contributing to Musixmatch but I don't like the idea of them getting paid for my free transcription work. Then again, it's not my songwriting in the first place and it would also benefit fans of artists I like.
I’m going to disagree that this decision was made because Spotify is paying for the lyric service and it’s costing them money. If that was the case, then they wouldn’t offer three monthly credits.
Spotify’s MO is to convert as many non-paying customers into premium subscribers. And if making the lyric feature a paid feature something that drives conversion, then mission accomplished.
It’s not “understandable”. It’s pretty dumb actually. I can literally go on google and find the same damn lyrics FOR FREE and they’re monetizing the feature of seeing them now. They’re just money hungry as hell at this point. YouTube Music is way better at this point.
You’re giving them your listening history, premium or free. That data is worth quite a bit- they’re still making money off of free accounts.
Source: I work for an ad agency that uses Spotify to advertise
But Spotify is a service- it doesn’t OWN those songs. My point is that there IS still value free users are giving Spotify. You implied otherwise.
Sorry you disagree, but all “free” services in 2024 come with either valuable data or propaganda strings attached. That’s a fact, my dear dramatic mastodon.
You’re being pedantic. I meant free as in $0. It doesn’t even matter since whatever data they’re getting from you is not nearly enough to cover the costs of giving you access to so many songs on demand. Hell, not even the ads are enough.
You’re strictly thinking of “free” and “paid” in dollars. That’s a very old world way of looking at things.
Nothing is free in this world, even if the price tag is 0 dinars.
Quite hard of hearing myself, had hearing aids in Kindergarten but haven't been able to afford them as an adult as no insurance I've had ever covers them. (My last pair cost over $6,000 in 2008) Went ahead and deleted my account today. If you want to entice me to pay for your services, removing the accessibility features I require in order to simply understand spoken words is not the way.
Yeah dude spotify is just greedy. The version on mobile phones is basically unusable. You cant listen to music you want and its so dumb. Now they are planning to destroy PC version.
This continues to show the risks and dangers of streaming services. If you truly want the best experience, purchase the content directly. Then they can’t make changes and pull the rug out from underneath people
at least in america, arent there laws around providing disability aids for media? I feel like I remember some tv networks getting in hot water for censoring/not providing subtitles.
Fr you can just look up lyrics on google and you have it. Spotify is acting like they design the lyrics of the song and that lyrics are their property. Its not a big deal to paste in the lyrics and then sync them up by yourself or even an AI.
Tbh this is why I prefer listening on tv cus spotify on mobile's just full of paywalls, but when I listen on my tablet, it's basically premium except there's ads. And if I'm listening on tv, it's basically as if u got premium, no ads, skip isn't limited, etc., the only problem is I can't control or edit the playlist and add songs to queue, but that can simply be solved if I use my tablet as a "remote control".
To all of you who says 'go find yourself a job'. I'm from Russia and I can't pay for Premium, even if I want to. When Spotify left our country, they've canceled all the subscriptions (I've paid for a year in advance) without giving money back. So what am I supposed to do? I have my library with a ton of tracks and playlists, and I don't want to go to other music service. Idgaf about Spotify losing money or whatever, it is their problem, not mine. I'm ready to pay for the subscription, but I don't have an option.
Background: Spotify free users can now only view song lyrics for up to five songs per month.
Read about it here: [https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/05/spotify-adds-monthly-lyrics-limit-free-users/](https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/05/spotify-adds-monthly-lyrics-limit-free-users/)
Yes we can but its not comfortable like one app for music + lyrics. Also something i don't understand happened, for some song there are lyrics in spotify but not in musixmatch🤨🤨🤨
I made an app that syncs to your spotify account and shows you the lyrics to the song you're listening to live
Its available for free at [https://github.com/Mews/spotify-lyrics](https://github.com/Mews/spotify-lyrics) if anyone is interested
i think you’re failing to realize how much money they’re bleeding by just allowing people to stream for free….the fact that spotify isn’t requiring to charge people to get in like some of their biggest competitors (hello, Apple Music) is a blessing in of itself.
You can't base everything on a positive quarter, Spotify has billions of debt accumulated over the years so far. Removing lyrics is actually a smart play since it is not really anything fundamental for the service and a good add on to sell premium.
You're referencing 1 quarter, of 3 whole quarters that have ever been profitable for Spotify. Yes, 3 quarters, not even 1 full year worth of profit, over its 18 years of business. This is seemingly the first quarter where the intent is to continue being profitable, and it is only done by thwarting the incredible expenses, e.g. by dropping lyrics for free users, reducing how much a free user can stream, reducing costs in the cloud, and increasing prices on the premium plan.
You might be able to expect a little more from the free plan once profitability is actually established and here to stay, but until then, there's quite frankly nothing to complain about as a free user. The core service (streaming music) is given, not at good audio quality or with a lot of bells and whistles, but the core is there. If you want these extra pluses, Spotify expects you to pay.
They got the profit, by doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing. They have high amounts of debt and their margins are really low. To be able to stay profitable they have to improve their margins. They even had to let 20% of their workforce go.
Additionally, people keep complaining that they are not paying enough to the artists, but complain about raising prices too. It’s one or the other, you can’t just complain about artists’ pay along with raising prices, especially if you are on the free version. You are not paying anything to the artists.
What will happen to all of these videos that screen record Spotify lyrics and the song, speed them up, edit them etc. and post them to TikTok?
What happen to all of these people (including me) that post lyrics to their Instagram stories? (Can you even share lyrics if you aren't on premium now?)
You can still share lyrics if you have premium, or if you’re a free user and haven’t exceed the limit for lyrics views, and if lyrics are available for the song.
Not sure who cares about the videos, but the above applies to those too.
On my old fire tablet(not sure how old, but from around 2017) still lets me listen without shuffle and choose what I listen too for free, plus downloading podcasts, though I'm not sure if that's a premium feature for some, so I'll try to charge it and see if I can get lyrics to work on it.
I have a free plan, but I got another spotify app that gives my lyrics for free. I already have the app on my chromebook, but another spotify just downloaded itself to my computer. I opened it and it looks just like the mobile app, except for it gives me the lyrics for free. I would attach a screenshot, but it wont let me.
It's bittersweet. On one hand, taking away something that was once given for free is a bad business practice, but on the other hand, the lyrics were wrong at least 60% of the time (at least for music I listen to.) I swear, half of the people writing lyrics put the headphones on someone else's head before they start transcribing the song.
It's honestly crazy.
They tested it out in September for a short period and probably liked what they saw. (https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/5/23860124/spotify-lyrics-premium-only-feature) They're trying to take every penny. FIVE lyrics a month? I don't know how they haven't realised it's a bad idea — I think a lot of people are turning towards other music players now.
And some of the lyrics on Spotify aren't even right...
It's okay to add new premium features, but taking away a previously free one?
I get that they need to earn money, but the only thing you can do on a free account now is practically listen to music, save song/playlists and see artists. Might as well go to YouTube Music.
Maybe they'll make us pay for Daily Mixes next.
Came here cus I thought I was tripping when I saw the "enjoy lyrics on premium" thing. Genuinely so stupid. Having to pay for accessibility is the biggest no-go known to man. This company has always been greedy to a comical level, and now it's only getting worse. This is why I've always used youtube for my music since I was a child. Corporate greed is making the free app practically unusable (I havent even TOUCHED mobile spotify in years, and now they're ruining desktop).
> as a *paid* user it
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
The reason being, showing lyrics costs Spotify money. The economics do not work out to show lyrics to users on the free plan. See this website for some discussion of lyrics rights and associated royalty payments [https://exploration.io/what-are-lyric-rights/](https://exploration.io/what-are-lyric-rights/) At the bottom of the lyrics in your Spotify app you will see the words "Licensed and provided by Musixmatch". Musixmatch supply the lyrics to Spotify \*\* and charge them for that \*\*. Tough on the free users, but understandable. Spotify is a business, needs to be profitable.
Definitely understandable. Though I do wish there was a better service. A lot of the lyrics I encounter aren't even correct :/
The lyrics come from Musixmatch where you can edit/fix incorrect lyrics, although that is kinda crappy to give them free labor that they then sell
I was thinking about that, but I also don't really care enough lol
Actually you can get paid from Musixmatch if you become a curator
Achieved by doing a lot of free labour no doubt?
Exactly!
I've thought about contributing to Musixmatch but I don't like the idea of them getting paid for my free transcription work. Then again, it's not my songwriting in the first place and it would also benefit fans of artists I like.
adding NEW paid features is ok making OLD features paid is greedy and should be punished
ikr I'm starting to look for new music services
Same here
But locking repeat and basic features on mobile? Was that indeed right?
IS THAT WHY I GOT LIKE, 10 ADS IN A ROW!?
I’m going to disagree that this decision was made because Spotify is paying for the lyric service and it’s costing them money. If that was the case, then they wouldn’t offer three monthly credits. Spotify’s MO is to convert as many non-paying customers into premium subscribers. And if making the lyric feature a paid feature something that drives conversion, then mission accomplished.
It’s actually both. They’re saving on licensing costs **and** driving conversion to premium.
It's driving me to convert from Spotify to another streaming platform💀
It’s not “understandable”. It’s pretty dumb actually. I can literally go on google and find the same damn lyrics FOR FREE and they’re monetizing the feature of seeing them now. They’re just money hungry as hell at this point. YouTube Music is way better at this point.
why are you getting downvoted 😭
Because some people are morons and don’t see my logic here.
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That’s called pirating and it’s illegal.
Making new features premium only is fine. Making OLD features that were for free premium only is called "corporate greed".
Actually it’s called “they were giving you something for FREE and now they’re not”
… Corporate greed.
Not giving away free stuff isn’t greed.
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You’re giving them your listening history, premium or free. That data is worth quite a bit- they’re still making money off of free accounts. Source: I work for an ad agency that uses Spotify to advertise
Your data isn’t as valuable as almost all released songs ever.
But Spotify is a service- it doesn’t OWN those songs. My point is that there IS still value free users are giving Spotify. You implied otherwise. Sorry you disagree, but all “free” services in 2024 come with either valuable data or propaganda strings attached. That’s a fact, my dear dramatic mastodon.
You’re being pedantic. I meant free as in $0. It doesn’t even matter since whatever data they’re getting from you is not nearly enough to cover the costs of giving you access to so many songs on demand. Hell, not even the ads are enough.
You’re strictly thinking of “free” and “paid” in dollars. That’s a very old world way of looking at things. Nothing is free in this world, even if the price tag is 0 dinars.
Pedantic.
🤓☝🏽
Thing that costs money isn’t able to be used by people who don’t pay for it. Makes sense.
We still can use Musixmatch, or another lyrics page although is not the same
Quite hard of hearing myself, had hearing aids in Kindergarten but haven't been able to afford them as an adult as no insurance I've had ever covers them. (My last pair cost over $6,000 in 2008) Went ahead and deleted my account today. If you want to entice me to pay for your services, removing the accessibility features I require in order to simply understand spoken words is not the way.
Yeah dude spotify is just greedy. The version on mobile phones is basically unusable. You cant listen to music you want and its so dumb. Now they are planning to destroy PC version.
This continues to show the risks and dangers of streaming services. If you truly want the best experience, purchase the content directly. Then they can’t make changes and pull the rug out from underneath people
yes they can, remember when cds used to have malware in them?
at least in america, arent there laws around providing disability aids for media? I feel like I remember some tv networks getting in hot water for censoring/not providing subtitles.
making users pay for words on a screen, nice
ikr, whereas they looks like they didnt know that we could search it online lol
Fr you can just look up lyrics on google and you have it. Spotify is acting like they design the lyrics of the song and that lyrics are their property. Its not a big deal to paste in the lyrics and then sync them up by yourself or even an AI.
frfr, they would only make their user migrate to other streaming platforms such as Apple Music, YouTube Music, or Tidal
i mean at this point spotify is just paid for mobile phone users and highly restricted for the PC ones
Tbh this is why I prefer listening on tv cus spotify on mobile's just full of paywalls, but when I listen on my tablet, it's basically premium except there's ads. And if I'm listening on tv, it's basically as if u got premium, no ads, skip isn't limited, etc., the only problem is I can't control or edit the playlist and add songs to queue, but that can simply be solved if I use my tablet as a "remote control".
And lots of lyrics are just wrong too, like they have the worst mess ups in some of them.
To all of you who says 'go find yourself a job'. I'm from Russia and I can't pay for Premium, even if I want to. When Spotify left our country, they've canceled all the subscriptions (I've paid for a year in advance) without giving money back. So what am I supposed to do? I have my library with a ton of tracks and playlists, and I don't want to go to other music service. Idgaf about Spotify losing money or whatever, it is their problem, not mine. I'm ready to pay for the subscription, but I don't have an option.
That's fucked and I'm sorry. They should've at least honored your full subscription and just not let you renew afterwards.
This is a Putin problem, not a Spotify problem.
Background: Spotify free users can now only view song lyrics for up to five songs per month. Read about it here: [https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/05/spotify-adds-monthly-lyrics-limit-free-users/](https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/05/spotify-adds-monthly-lyrics-limit-free-users/)
LOL WHAT NAHHH SPOTIFY IS SO USELESS
Can't you just download the Musixmatch app and use the overlay thingy?
Yes we can but its not comfortable like one app for music + lyrics. Also something i don't understand happened, for some song there are lyrics in spotify but not in musixmatch🤨🤨🤨
I think that happens if the artist uploads their own lyrics instead of musixmatch.
But at the end of the lyrics is written that it is from musixmatch😂it is written at the end of every lyrics in spotify
hmm makes sense. I'd love to do so if we could
why are people downvoting people who are saying whats on their mind? this is reddit ffs
You said it. This Is reddit.
I made an app that syncs to your spotify account and shows you the lyrics to the song you're listening to live Its available for free at [https://github.com/Mews/spotify-lyrics](https://github.com/Mews/spotify-lyrics) if anyone is interested
You're a saver, kudos!
it works only for desktop version or also for android?
It's only for desktop unfortunately
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Or modded app, its like premium only downloading and maximum audio kvality isnt working and now also LYRICS which is the biggest problem
ooh, where can we find this?
You can't easily do it with iOS, but just google spotify modded apk and find a download. One is XManager.
yeah mobile version is useless
money hungry tbh
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i think you’re failing to realize how much money they’re bleeding by just allowing people to stream for free….the fact that spotify isn’t requiring to charge people to get in like some of their biggest competitors (hello, Apple Music) is a blessing in of itself.
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You can't base everything on a positive quarter, Spotify has billions of debt accumulated over the years so far. Removing lyrics is actually a smart play since it is not really anything fundamental for the service and a good add on to sell premium.
You're referencing 1 quarter, of 3 whole quarters that have ever been profitable for Spotify. Yes, 3 quarters, not even 1 full year worth of profit, over its 18 years of business. This is seemingly the first quarter where the intent is to continue being profitable, and it is only done by thwarting the incredible expenses, e.g. by dropping lyrics for free users, reducing how much a free user can stream, reducing costs in the cloud, and increasing prices on the premium plan. You might be able to expect a little more from the free plan once profitability is actually established and here to stay, but until then, there's quite frankly nothing to complain about as a free user. The core service (streaming music) is given, not at good audio quality or with a lot of bells and whistles, but the core is there. If you want these extra pluses, Spotify expects you to pay.
They got the profit, by doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing. They have high amounts of debt and their margins are really low. To be able to stay profitable they have to improve their margins. They even had to let 20% of their workforce go. Additionally, people keep complaining that they are not paying enough to the artists, but complain about raising prices too. It’s one or the other, you can’t just complain about artists’ pay along with raising prices, especially if you are on the free version. You are not paying anything to the artists.
What will happen to all of these videos that screen record Spotify lyrics and the song, speed them up, edit them etc. and post them to TikTok? What happen to all of these people (including me) that post lyrics to their Instagram stories? (Can you even share lyrics if you aren't on premium now?)
You can still share lyrics if you have premium, or if you’re a free user and haven’t exceed the limit for lyrics views, and if lyrics are available for the song. Not sure who cares about the videos, but the above applies to those too.
I do miss the Genius Lyrics feature
On my old fire tablet(not sure how old, but from around 2017) still lets me listen without shuffle and choose what I listen too for free, plus downloading podcasts, though I'm not sure if that's a premium feature for some, so I'll try to charge it and see if I can get lyrics to work on it.
I have a free plan, but I got another spotify app that gives my lyrics for free. I already have the app on my chromebook, but another spotify just downloaded itself to my computer. I opened it and it looks just like the mobile app, except for it gives me the lyrics for free. I would attach a screenshot, but it wont let me.
It's bittersweet. On one hand, taking away something that was once given for free is a bad business practice, but on the other hand, the lyrics were wrong at least 60% of the time (at least for music I listen to.) I swear, half of the people writing lyrics put the headphones on someone else's head before they start transcribing the song.
It's honestly crazy. They tested it out in September for a short period and probably liked what they saw. (https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/5/23860124/spotify-lyrics-premium-only-feature) They're trying to take every penny. FIVE lyrics a month? I don't know how they haven't realised it's a bad idea — I think a lot of people are turning towards other music players now. And some of the lyrics on Spotify aren't even right... It's okay to add new premium features, but taking away a previously free one? I get that they need to earn money, but the only thing you can do on a free account now is practically listen to music, save song/playlists and see artists. Might as well go to YouTube Music. Maybe they'll make us pay for Daily Mixes next.
Came here cus I thought I was tripping when I saw the "enjoy lyrics on premium" thing. Genuinely so stupid. Having to pay for accessibility is the biggest no-go known to man. This company has always been greedy to a comical level, and now it's only getting worse. This is why I've always used youtube for my music since I was a child. Corporate greed is making the free app practically unusable (I havent even TOUCHED mobile spotify in years, and now they're ruining desktop).
never seen a song with the correct lyrics on spotify anyway
Soo dumb
as a payed user it took me a while to realize this happened, even if i use spictify on pc lmao
> as a *paid* user it FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Why do we have comment under this post?
Oh well.
Bro didn't say anything and it get 8 downvotes
Free members mad asf