Spotify is trying a new approach to push its free users towards Premium subscriptions by making the lyrics feature accessible only to paid subscribers. After seeing posts on Reddit expressing users’ dissatisfaction with this change, the company confirmed the change, albeit quietly. Here are the details:
Spotify lyrics feature going paid
Following the strong reactions on Reddit, the company summarized the situation by stating that features could change over time and vary by market. This indicates that this move is not just a trial. However, Spotify is not yet ready to make an official statement on which markets will be affected.
A few months ago, Spotify restricted lyrics access to only some users for testing purposes. Free users attempting to access lyrics would encounter a message saying, “Enjoy lyrics on Spotify Premium.” This means that the lyrics feature has now become exclusively a Premium feature.
However, the company has not clearly stated this change on its website or help documents, which may suggest that the change is still undergoing some testing. For example, free users attempting to view lyrics will now deduct from their monthly limits each time.
Spotify has not detailed why it made this feature paid, but it’s clearly an effort to attract more users to paid subscriptions. In the last quarter, the company surpassed expectations by reaching over 600 million monthly active users, with paid subscribers exceeding 236 million, a year-over-year increase of 15%. However, quarterly revenues fell short of expectations at 3.67 billion euros, compared to 3.72 billion euros.
Whether restricting lyrics will lead users towards paid subscriptions remains to be seen. Lyrics can still be found for free online and through other apps that work with Spotify, such as Genius, Apple’s Shazam, or Musixmatch. This situation could also limit Spotify’s influence over users.
What do you think about Spotify making this feature paid? You can share your thoughts in the comments below.
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