It never likes with users when a company starts charging money overnight for something that was previously freely available – but that’s exactly what Spotify has been doing for the past few days. Social media sites like Reddit and X are inundated with user reports that the most popular music streaming service, Spotify, has turned off lyrics display behind the premium subscription level for some users.
As is well known, these were previously available to anyone who downloaded the app and registered, but only now “Enjoy Lyrics on Spotify Premium” anyone “Enjoy Lyrics on Spotify Premium” Text receives users without subscription. Naturally, the media quickly picked up on the issue, forcing CJ Stanley, Spotify’s co-head of global communications, to speak out about the restriction.
At Spotify, we routinely run various tests, some of which are extended to a wide range of users, in order to gather as much feedback as possible – however, I can’t share any more news at this time.
Stanley explained, later adding that they are currently testing the functionality with a limited number of users, but he did not specify in which markets they are doing so or how long the testing period will last.
Money money money
While it’s possible that Spotify wouldn’t extend the restriction to all users at the last minute, it’s not hard to guess that the chances of that happening are slim, as this is a perfect opportunity for the Swedish company to extract more money from users. Although there is no data on how many users will subscribe to Spotify Premium to be able to read the lyrics as well, it is certain that thanks to this, the subscription service can offer more with a feature that may already convince some of that. spend money.
By the way, Spotify has failed in many of its plans in recent months – for example, it has invested a huge amount of money in podcasts and audiobooks, which have not even achieved the success expected from them – and the only popular innovation was the so-called AI-based DJ development, which is dedicated He compiles a radio station and comments on tracks like a good morning radio announcer.
Others have already tried something similar
By the way, Spotify is not the only one who follows this strategy in terms of introducing new developments. As Index previously reported, at the beginning of the year Google, and more specifically YouTube, was attacked by netizens – more than once. The first thing that surprised users was the fact that 4K videos were only available to premium subscribers, while in the second case, the fact that subscribers could watch FullHD content at a higher bit rate caused a greater media response.
In the case of the former, the outcry was so great that Google pulled the innovation almost immediately, but the latter has since begun to introduce it more widely.
By the way, tech giants like Google and Spotify often choose similar strategies when they make a certain functionality (in this case, a restriction) available to a small group of users, in order to know first-hand what kind of reaction it provokes. If the outcry is too great, they will pull the development, however, if they see the restriction as only a problem for a small group of people, otherwise it pays off commercially, it will be offered permanently to all users – we’re curious to see how it all plays out in Spotify’s case.
