Spotify has brought back unrestricted song lyrics for free users, a feature the music streaming platform had placed behind a premium paywall. The company previously only allowed users access to only three songs per month.
Talking to Engadget, Spotify’s spokesperson said that the music service is always “testing and iterating,” adding that the company will be “expanding Lyrics availability for Spotify Free users so more people can enjoy viewing more lyrics, globally,” Plus, it will be available to all users “over the coming weeks.”
The music service first rolled out its real-time lyrics feature globally in November 2021 after only offering it to a select few countries. In September last year, Spotify began testing making lyrics a Premium-only feature but the wider rolling out started in May this year.
Spotify like any other music app has had a complicated history with lyrics. While the company currently works with Musixmatch to display song lyrics, the two parties in 2016 shortly parted ways. Spotify then opted to instead offer a “Behind the Lyrics” feature following its partnership with Genius.
However, this wasn’t the same thing. The feature was only offering background information on songs. It should however, be noted that at this time, the company was offering lyrics in some markets, like Japan where Spotify users had access to lyrics through a standalone deal with SyncPower, but the feature hadn’t received a widespread launch.
