Back in November, Spotify confirmed its intentions to bring lyrics to their platform in select territories. Today sees that become a reality as they partner with Musixmatch to bring the feature to 26 markets, 22 of them having access to lyrics through Spotify for the first time.
Lyrics have been a highly requested feature when it comes to Spotify, with comments and threads addressing it often.
The feature will offer real-time lyrics in the language in which the songs are sung. Users will access the feature by tapping “Lyrics” at the bottom of the “Now Playing” screen.
The following markets will gain access to the new feature starting tomorrow: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, El Salvador, Uruguay, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong.
The streamer had worked with Musixmatch in the past, but cut ties with the provider in 2016 before teaming up with lyrics provider Genius for its “Behind the Lyrics” feature.
Since 2016, Genius has provided Spotify with backstory and commentary along with partial lyrics to power the Behind the Lyrics feature, but didn’t offer full lyrics.
In 2018, Apple teamed up with Genius to provide full lyrics to Apple Music listeners. Apple Music also then became the exclusive web player for Genius. In 2020, Apple expanded its relationship with Genius to co-produce a video series called “Verified,” which was made available on Apple Music.
Spotify’s delay to roll out lyrics is due to the complexities around lyrics and licensing. As a result, providing users with access to legally licensed lyrics on streaming services has been difficult for many companies, not only Spotify.
With the expansion of lyrics to these 26 countries, Spotify will offer lyrics to 27 markets out of its 79 total markets worldwide. Japan had already offered lyrics through a different provider until now.
Source: TechCrunch
