Spotify Says That Lyrics Are A Privilege Solely For Its Premium Users
I love my music, so to avoid the ads and the limitations that come with playing music on a free Spotify plan, I was on a Premium subscription in no time. I don’t think there’s a single day that I don’t happen to use the lyrics on one or two songs so I can sing along.
Late last year, some users on the free plan noted that they weren’t able to view lyrics as it seemed to now be behind a paywall, but that was apparently on a very small scale. However, as of now, this limiting addition to Spotify seems to have been rolled out on a much wider scale. The bottom line: if you want to view lyrics from the Spotify app, you are going to need to pay for a Premium subscription.
You can see a lot of complaints by checking social media platforms like Reddit or X. It’d be understandable if lyrics were a new feature and immediately placed behind a paywall, but to take something that most people were enjoying for free and yank it away from them is always going to be a move that gets a lot of flak.
Spotify’s Free Plan Already Has Its Hands And Legs Tied; This Is Adding A Blindfold To The Mix
It’s understandable that some people might not be able to afford or might not want to add a Spotify subscription to their monthly expenses. And from a business perspective, it’s understandable that Spotify needs to incentivize getting its Premium plan. However, at this point, I think they might be going a bit too far.
If you’re using the free plan for Spotify, you have to endure ads being thrust between songs every here and there. You also can’t download music or stream with anything higher than basic audio quality, which is 160 kbps.
You’re also forced to listen to a shuffled playlist of music based on a song that you choose. Let’s say I want to listen to Mine by Sleep Token and I tap on it. I might need to listen to any number of random songs deemed to be in the same general arena as the track that I chose until the Spotify algorithm feels like playing me the song I chose. Sure, I can skip if I don’t like the song playing, but you only get six skips per hour and after that, you’re helpless. It’s like radio, only with a few extra perks.
And now, the lyrics are gone. Using the free plan is going to get a lot more frustrating with the way things are now. Plus, Spotify Premium is getting a price hike this year too, so that doesn’t make things better.
