After years of ignoring consumer demand for in-app lyrics in the U.S., Spotify announced today it will make a new feature available to all global users, both Free and Premium. The feature is powered by lyrics provider Musixmatch, and expands on a previous deal that Spotify had with the company to offer lyrics to users in India, Latin America and Southeast Asia.
After initially testing the feature in the 26 worldwide markets, the feature was introduced last year. This was the first time in the history of the company that 22 of the 26 markets had ever gained any form of lyrics support. The deal expanded to 28 markets. Japanese users of the music streaming service have access to lyrics through a deal with syncpower.
In other markets, users have only had access to "Behind the Lyrics," a feature launched in 2016 in partnership with Genius which offered lyrics and other information about the song. Over the years, thousands of users have expressed to the company that they would prefer a feature that provided real-time lyrics, instead of lyrics that are interrupted with facts and other background information.
Users will get their wish now.
The new Lyrics feature will make way for the sunsetting of "Behind the Lyrics."
The lyrics will be available on different platforms from the "Now Playing" view or bar.
The lyrics of the track can be scrolled by in real time on the mobile screen. The microphone icon can be found in the "Now Playing" bar on the desktop app. You can enable lyrics from the lyrics button on the TV app.
The feature will be available on the big screen via the company's app for the following:
The new feature allows users to share their lyrics and destinations from a button on the bottom of the screen on their mobile device.
We are told that there is no difference between the experience for Free and Premium users.
There is a complicated history of real-time lyrics on music apps. Companies turn to a third-party provider when lyrics aren't provided by music publishers. Providers don't always play fair. Genius tracked the plagiarism of its lyrics collection by hiding secret codes in its lyrics to make it sound like it was red-handed. The lyrics appeared in the search results. The blame was with the partner. There are few alternatives for major lyrics deals, so it didn't drop its partnership.
It made headlines when it was announced that Apple had a partnership with Genius for the lyrics of thousands of its top songs, and then two years later became the exclusive web player for Genius. According to its website, Amazon works with both Musixmatch and Lyric Find.
One of the big advantages these rivals have over Spotify is that they are able to offer Lyrics in all markets where the service is offered.
The company says that Lyrics will begin to be rolled out around the world today.
