Back in September of last year, Spotify started testing limiting access to lyrics in-app for free users in the US, giving them lyrics of only three songs a month. This was expanded to more users back in May of this year. And now, it looks like the music streaming service is decided to put a stop to the experiment.
In a statement to Engadget, a company spokesperson said that “over the coming weeks, we’ll be expanding Lyrics availability for Spotify Free users so more people can enjoy viewing more lyrics, globally”. The statement also involved something about the company “always testing and iterating” as the reasoning behind the availability of some features “across tiers and between markets and devices”.
On a whole, one can argue that it’s probably for the best. Taking away features that were previously being offered for free never results in good publicity, and there’s no sense in creating more. Not when competitors are offering more for a lower price, especially when it comes to what the more hardcore among music listeners are looking forward to – HiFi audio.
And on that department, despite being the first one to announce it, the company is way behind its competitors. Other music streamers not only delivered HiFi music first, they also did it for free, sending Spotify to languish at the drawing board for over the past three years – and counting – to justify making customers pay for the feature. Instead, early rumours of it pointed to a pricier subscription tier with frivolous additions like the AI-assisted Library Pro and Playlist Pro, to justify making customers pay more for lossless audio.
(Source: Engadget)
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