O Spotifyone of the most popular music streaming services in the world, is causing a stir among its free users by testing charging for the lyrics display feature in its app.
User reports indicate that, on free accounts, access to lyrics is now blocked, replaced by a message that says: “Enjoy lyrics on Spotify Premium”.
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In response to user concerns about this potential change, CJ Stanley, Spotify’s co-director of global communications, said the company routinely conducts tests to improve the user experience, but didn’t give many details about the future of lyrics on the service.
“At Spotify, we routinely run a series of tests, some of these tests end up paving the way for our broader user experience and others just serve as important learnings. We have no further news to share at this time,” she explained.
He added that restricting the lyrics feature to free users is being tested “with a limited number of users in some markets,” but did not specify which markets are involved in these tests.
The future of lyrics on Spotify
While the current situation may be discouraging for some free Spotify users, there is still a possibility that the company will reverse this change and allow all users to access Spotify’s lyrics. songs without additional costs.
However, the company has shown interest in exploring ways to encourage users to subscribe to Premium accounts and pay for the use of additional features of the app.
The Lyrics Display feature on Spotify began testing in 2019 and was officially launched in November 2021, making it available for all platforms and account types, both Premium and Free.
Spotify is a music, podcasts and video streaming service officially launched in October 2008. It is widely used and developed by the startup Spotify AB, based in Stockholm, Sweden. Offers an extensive library of protected content Copyright from record labels and media companies.
The app adopts the freemium model, offering basic features for free with ads or limitations, while premium features such as enhanced audio quality, ad deletion, and music downloads are available for a fee.
It is available in many parts of the world, including most of Europe, parts of America, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Asia. Spotify is compatible with most modern devices, from computers running Windows, macOS, and Linux to smartphones and tablets running iOS and Android.
With a library of over 100 million songs, it allows users to create, edit and share playlists, as well as share tracks on social media and collaborate on playlists with other users.
As of July 2023, Spotify has over 527 million active users, including 210 million paying subscribers. These numbers highlight its position as a leader in the music streaming market.
