Spotify starts hiding song lyrics behind paywall

No lyrics for you (unless you pay up).
 By 
Stan Schroeder
 on 
Spotify app
Spotify's free tier is deteriorating. Credit: picture alliance/getty images

Spotify's free tier has just gotten a little worse.

The company recently put yet another popular feature behind its Spotify Premium paywall: song lyrics. As noticed by numerous users on Reddit (via Android Authority), to see song lyrics you now need to have a Spotify Premium subscription, which starts at $10.99 ($5.99 for students).

Some users are reporting that song lyrics aren't completely unavailable on the free tier; instead, there's a monthly limit on lyrics for non-Premium subscribers.


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Spotify's free tier doesn't cost anything, but it contains ads, and doesn't let users download or play songs in any order, among other limitations. On the flip side, the company also increased the prices of its Premium subscription tiers, with reports claiming that it's going to get even more expensive this year.

For comparison, Apple Music does not offer a free tier, and neither does Tidal (there used to be a free Tidal tier, but it was recently canceled). YouTube Music does have a free tier, and it is in many ways less restrictive than Spotify's, and includes the ability to see song lyrics.

Topics Music Spotify

Stan Schroeder
Stan Schroeder
Senior Editor

Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.

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