Unlimited access to lyrics on Spotify may now be limited to the music streaming giant’s $10.99 per month Premium users.
Although Spotify has not yet officially announced the change, there are free Spotify users on Reddit and X noted this week that there appeared to be a new limitation when trying to display song lyrics on the platform.
A notification on the lyrics page informed free users that Spotify would track every time they pressed the “Show Lyrics” button for a song and would block them from viewing lyrics at a certain point.
The notification sighting indicates that free users will now have a limit on how many lyrics they can access each month, although the exact cap and affected markets have not yet been announced.
Spotify is now adding a monthly lyric limit for free accounts pic.twitter.com/mrVufudltK
– Dexerto (@Dexerto) May 1, 2024
When TechCrunch asked about the change, Spotify said it changes its features over time in different markets and on different devices.
The company tested placing texts behind a paywall in September, but clearly characterized the move as a test that only applied to a limited number of users at the time.
Spotify Premium to see lyrics?
byu/MeowKat090709 intruespotify
Some Reddit users were frustrated by the change, with one writing: “You’re taking away features, [accessibility features, mind you!] that we already had access to, and we have to pay more for that.”
Another Reddit user had a different perspective: “If you use a service that costs money for the company, why is it unreasonable for you to pay for it?”
Related: Spotify is reportedly increasing prices in several countries, including the US – here’s when and what new plans you can expect
Lyrics are available online for free, but Spotify’s one-stop-shop advantage allows users to access lyrics alongside songs on the platform.
Accessing song lyrics via Spotify saves free users a web search – and could be enough to convert them to a premium subscription.
Spotify’s premium members generate the majority of the company’s revenue. The company’s most recent results from February show that the service has over half a billion users, 236 million of whom pay to use it.
Although Spotify grew paying users by 15% last year despite raising prices from $9.99 to $10.99 a month, it fell short of $3.94 billion in profit in the quarter, according to Reuters the analyst expectations.
“We have to pull a lot of levers, including price increases. So you’ll see us working with all of these levers at different times and in different markets,” CEO Daniel Ek said in an interview with the publication in February. “We’re also much more focused on the bottom line now.”
Related: Spotify CEO criticizes Apple, saying company is ‘causing serious harm’ and ‘stifling competition’
Spotify could raise prices in the US by the end of the year.