Spotify sparks fury by making major lyrics change | indy100

Spotify quietly removes feature from free version

Bang Showbiz - Tech / VideoElephant

Whether it’s trying to figure out what Eminem is saying at speed in “Rap God” or helping us learn the words to all 31 tracks on Taylor Swift’s new album The Tortured Poets Department, lyrics are pretty important for getting fans closer to the music they love – but now, Spotify wants you to pay up for the privilege.

The decision follows an initial test of placing its lyric feature behind its Premium subscription in September last year, with the company’s co-head of global communications CJ Stanley telling The Verge at the time that they were trying out the experiment “with a limited number of users in a pair of markets”.

He 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.”

Now it seems the music streaming giant is all too happy to go ahead with the change, as users of the platform’s free membership have reported being encouraged to “enjoy lyrics on Spotify Premium”, with one dialogue box stating “there’s a monthly limit on lyrics”.

“Every time you tap ‘show lyrics’, it will count towards your limit. To get full access to lyrics, switch to Spotify Premium,” it reads.

Unsurprisingly, Spotify users aren’t happy.

It's hardly music to their ears (sorry), with some arguing an accessibility feature shouldn’t be paywalled:

I'm hard-of-hearing w/ an auditory processing disorder. I use lyrics every time I listen to @Spotify.\n\nSo I'm infuriated to hear @SpotifyCares more about money than accessibility. As a Premium subscriber, I urge Spotify to reverse this decision. Access shouldn't depend on income.
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Fuck you @Spotify, making lyrics get blocks behind fucking premium.\n\n@youtubemusic doesn't do this.\n\n@Spotify you're greedy as shit
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Spotify is really falling off, yall really have to pay to see lyrics
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spotify count your fucking days why would you put lyrics that's available everywhere on the fucking internet behind your bitchass paywall. y'all billion dollar companies getting too comfortable
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spotify putting their lyrics feature behind a paywall is my villain origin story actually
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i lowkey hate u spotify\n\n#spotify #spotifypremium #spotifylyrics
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how tf spotify gon put a monthly limit on lyrics and 1. they lyrics be wrong 2. they barely got lyrics on the songs and 3. i can go the the internet and find the lyrics for free \ud83d\udc80
— (@)

This is so ableist. \n\nAs a deaf user, I have utilized the lyrics feature almost to a default. When people send me music to listen to, I go out of my way to open it up on Spotify to read the lyrics while it plays.\n\nLyrics are captions!! Captions help EVERYONE. Don\u2019t paywall them!
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@Dexerto One day you'll need premium to hit play
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@Dexerto You got any more of them, words?
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@Dexerto Spotify be falling off so hard lmao
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In the ‘App Help’ section of its website, Spotify says only paid users will have “unlimited access” – even though they acknowledge in the next sentence that “lyrics may not be available on all songs and devices”.

“New lyrics are added every day, so you may find it added in the future,” they write.

An Individual subscription on Spotify Premium costs £11.99 a month in the UK, or $10.99 in the US, and in addition to unlocking lyrics, removes ads in between songs and restrictions on playing songs in a certain order.

Spotify has been approached by indy100 for comment.

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