Popular music streaming service Spotify is conducting a “routine testing” that puts in-app lyrics behind a premium paywall, corroborated by a multitude of reports suggesting the latter.
According to multiple free users, lyrics that were previously publicly available had become inaccessible to them and are instead greeted with a notification bubble saying, “Enjoy lyrics on Spotify Premium.”
In a statement by Spotify, it claims that the change is merely a part of their routine to “conduct a number of tests.” Some of these, it continued, is aimed at expanding the “user experience” while others “serve only as an important learning.”
Spotify Co-head of Global Communications CJ Stanley, via The Verge, said that there is no further news they could share at this time.
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While it is not certain whether or not the lyrics feature will become usable for free users again, the possibility of its return is not completely removed.
Coincidentally, the event follows the massive layoffs within the podcast division of Spotify, which had seen plenty of investments from the company in recent years.
Spotify is also reportedly bleeding money amid efforts to raise its prices and grow its subscriber base. Its experimental move around the app’s lyrics might be an attempt to push users to opt for a paid subscription eventually, though without an initial negative reaction from the community.
The in-app lyrics feature did not see testing and subsequent implementation in Spotify until only in recent years, following a strong demand by users.