Joe Maring / Android Authority
TL;DR YouTube Music is experimenting with paywalling lyrics for its free users.
The company is limiting the number of free lyrics views before prompting users to upgrade to a Premium account.
This move is similar to what Spotify did, a change it eventually reversed after user backlash.
Spotify and YouTube Music are reasonably competitive in their features, with each service having some nice extras. Spotify Connect is a lifesaver if you have multiple devices, whereas YouTube Music being bundled in YouTube Premium works out in its favor. Both services have been trying to convert more of their free users into becoming paid customers, and now it seems YouTube Music is borrowing a leaf out of Spotify’s book by paywalling the lyrics feature.
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Reddit user Xinfinte spotted that they had limited views of lyrics remaining on YouTube Music. The app prompted them to upgrade to Premium to unlock lyrics beyond the free limit.
Other Redditors point out that YouTube Music seems to be using LyricFind and MusixMatch to retrieve and display the lyrics in the app. This is likely costing YouTube some money, and it does look fair on its part to limit users to a certain number of free uses and pay for Premium for unlimited access.
Spotify also pulled a similar move last year when it paywalled lyrics behind Spotify Premium. What was once a free feature suddenly required a monthly fee in the form of a Premium subscription. Naturally, free users got annoyed by this push, and the backlash eventually forced Spotify to backtrack and provide lyrics for free again.
It seems YouTube Music didn’t get the memo, or that it refuses to learn from Spotify’s mistakes. It remains to be seen how strong user backlash is for YouTube Music this time. At least in the case of YouTube Music, you do get a ton of value for ad-free video streaming on YouTube through YouTube Premium (and even more so with family sharing), so it’s a slightly easier pill to swallow.
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