What to know
- Free Spotify users can access lyrics again, with an unspecified monthly limit.
- Earlier, Spotify paywalled lyrics – a once-free feature – and only allowed access to 3 song lyrics per month.
- As mentioned by a Spotify spokesperson, the new monthly limit is higher than anyone would ever reach.
After pay-walling lyrics in May – a highly controversial move that received a lot of flak from Spotify’s irate user base – the Swedish music streaming company is now making a U-turn. That means, free Spotify users can once again access more song lyrics.
While the initial change to make lyrics a Premium feature was never something that Spotify publicly addressed, it’s already beating the drums talking about the recent change that it is sure users will welcome.
A Spotify spokesperson told Engadget:
“Over the coming weeks, we’ll be expanding Lyrics availability for Spotify Free users so more people can enjoy viewing more lyrics, globally.”
The move to make viewing lyrics a Premium feature was seen as an experiment, though, knowing Spotify, it could’ve easily been a permanent decision. Free users were allotted access to no more than three song lyrics (per month!) before being asked to get a Premium subscription. As expected, it wasn’t something that sat well with the users.
Historically, things haven’t panned out well whenever once-free features are suddenly turned into paid features.
Speaking on the new limit, Spotify told 9to5Google:
“[t]he new monthly limit is higher than anyone would ever reach, and higher than any single user has ever neared.”
Now that’s a mighty claim to make. Although there’s no exact figure on how many song lyrics free users can access before being asked to purchase Premium again, it is not exactly a return to the good ol’ days.
Back in the day, there was no restriction on viewing lyrics. Now, whatever the exact number may be, Spotify will ask you to get a subscription – the price for which has only gone up – once the free quota runs out. We can expect the denizens of the web to figure out the monthly limit soon enough.
Recently, Spotify released a new Basic Plan (that’s a dollar more expensive than what a Premium subscription used to cost) and made Audiobooks a permanent feature on the new Premium. While other streaming services have kept things stable in terms of prices and features. Spotify is also yet to get Lossless music and users have almost given up hope for it.
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