Spotify has announced a series of updates to its built-in song lyrics feature, including global access to lyrics translations, offline lyrics viewing, and a redesigned placement within the app.
The update comes as part of Spotify’s long-running effort to use lyrics as a tool to drive user engagement and encourage free users to upgrade to Premium. In 2024, the company faced backlash after attempting to place lyrics behind a paywall, later easing the restriction following widespread complaints.
With the latest changes, Spotify is introducing offline lyrics viewing, a feature exclusive to Premium subscribers. The company believes this addition could further incentivize users on the free tier to upgrade.
As part of the redesign, lyrics have been moved to a more prominent position in the app. They now appear directly beneath the album artwork or the looping video that plays alongside a song. According to Spotify, internal user testing showed that this placement increased engagement with lyrics. Users can still share selected lyric snippets to social media from the Now Playing screen.
Spotify says the new lyrics layout, referred to as lyric previews, will roll out globally to both free and paid users on iOS and Android devices, including smartphones and tablets.
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In addition, Spotify has expanded lyrics translations to all supported markets worldwide. The feature, first introduced in 2022, was previously limited to just 25 markets. When available, users can tap the translate icon on the lyrics card to view translated text beneath the original lyrics. Translations automatically default to the language set on the user’s device.
Spotify’s lyrics journey has been gradual, largely due to licensing challenges. After years of demand, the company rolled out real-time lyrics globally in 2021, following limited market launches and tests that began in 2019. Before then, Spotify partnered with Genius for its “Behind the Lyrics” feature, which combined partial lyrics with song trivia rather than full, synchronized lyrics.
