In a desperate attempt to force users to upgrade to premium subscriptions, Spotify just made its free tier a little worse. Turns out the audio streaming platform has added song lyrics under a paywall. Pointed by users on Reddit with the changes soon available for others to see, you would need a Spotify Premium subscription to get access to lyrics when listening to songs on the platform.
In case you can see lyrics on your free tier, don’t get confused with the story title. Turns out Spotify has imposed a monthly limit on how many times a non-Premium subscriber gets to see lyrics on songs. What this means is, that you will continue to see lyrics up to a maximum number (that we aren’t aware of at the moment). Once you hit that number, the lyrics will hide under the paywall requiring a premium subscription to get access to song lyrics.
For the unversed, Spotify syncs lyrics when playing a song on the platform. People love lyrics before they help them understand what the artist is singing and with automatic sync, the lyrics simply move along the track giving you real-time experience.
Also Read: Pixel 8a Coming to India: 5 Reasons Why Pixel Fans Should Be Excited?
Spotify’s free tier doesn’t make money. Supporting a giant audio streaming and podcast app like Spotify requires a lot of manpower and capital and that’s where the Premium subscription comes into play. The free tier also contains unskippable ads (yes, I know you gushed) that users see or listen to when they are on the platform which is how Spotify makes money off the free tier. However, it seems like Spotify is trying to get its users upgraded to a Premium subscription and thereby, blowing off many features from the free tier to the premium tiers including the song lyrics that you just came to know about.
On the flip side, Spotify has also jacked up the prices for its myriad of Premium subscription tiers making it expensive with every consecutive year. You can switch to Tidal or YouTube Music for a rather frill-free user experience although there’s always gonna be pros and cons with any app or service you end up using.
YouTube, Google’s video streaming platform, is making strides to pull off similar. It has prompted users to upgrade to premium tiers with constant notifications. The number of ads has increased and in fact, it is also testing pause ads that trigger whenever you pause videos.
You can follow Smartprix on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Google News. Visit smartprix.com for the most recent tech and auto news, reviews, and guides
