Unlike many subscription services out there, Spotify remains one of the only ones to still offer a free version. The free version of Spotify gives you less leeway on choosing the music you want to hear, and it has ads that might pop in mid-song, but it’s still there. While there are plenty of reasons to go for Spotify’s paid version instead of the free one, the platform might be about to give you an extra reason — lyrics.
A number of Spotify users on platforms like Reddit started reporting that lyrics, which were previously available for both Premium and free users, are now locked behind a paywall. Now, where lyrics used to be, there’s now a button to subscribe to Premium. Spotify added lyrics almost two years ago, and they’ve basically become a staple of the Spotify listening experience ever since, which is why Spotify might be aroused by the idea of using it to lure more people into paying for Premium.
If you’re wondering why you haven’t seen it just yet, it’s because this is currently something the company is testing but not quite rolling out yet. In a statement to The Verge, CJ Stanley, co-head of Global Communications, said that “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.” He went on to add that “in keeping with our standard practices, we’re currently testing this with a limited number of users in a pair of markets.” It’s not clear yet in which markets this change is being tested.
This change is evidently server-side, so the next time you go listen to music, don’t be surprised if lyrics are nowhere to be found. If they were removed for you, there’s a chance Spotify will roll this back, but there’s also a very real chance that this change will eventually roll out to everyone. There are other reasons to subscribe to Spotify Premium, such as ad-free music listening, but lyrics shouldn’t have to be one of those reasons.
Source: The Verge