YouTube accused of putting song lyrics behind a Premium paywall

It seems YouTube is trialing a potentially contentious innovation, where song lyrics are accessible exclusively through their premium service within the music app, a tactic reminiscent of Spotify’s strategy last year that was met with criticism and subsequently altered.

In the ongoing competition for supremacy in music streaming, YouTube Music consistently holds a distinctive advantage. With a Premium subscription, viewers can enjoy an ad-free experience across YouTube’s vast video library, as well as access to an ad-free version of YouTube Music that boasts a song catalog comparable to that of Spotify and Apple Music.

It appears that for free users, access to a popular feature might become restricted soon. Based on recent Reddit discussions, it seems that some YouTube Music users are encountering notifications indicating they have used up their limit for viewing lyrics and will require a Premium subscription to carry on with this feature.

It’s not certain whether the alteration is just a trial or a full implementation; however, the response on social media has been far from positive.

“That’s so lame. YouTube is a fragment of what it used to be,” one user complained.

The situation is likely to deteriorate further; that’s a laugh (lol). Historically, subscriptions have proven to be more lucrative than advertisements, and this fact holds true as well.

YouTube paywalls lyrics one year after Spotify tried the same thing

It’s been observed that the lyrics seem to originate from external sources like LyricFind and MusixMatch, which require payment for licensing rights. This might be the reason behind YouTube considering restrictions on access. However, some users perceive this action as a money-grabbing strategy.

In the year 2024, Spotify experienced a comparable outcry when they put up barriers for lyric access. However, they swiftly changed their stance and re-established free availability, describing this move as an “expansion” to allow more people worldwide to enjoy a greater number of lyrics.

To date, it appears that not every user of YouTube Music has encountered the limitation, which might indicate a localized or trial release. If the negative feedback escalates, YouTube may choose to mirror Spotify’s actions and re-evaluate their decision.

As a dedicated gamer, I’ve been frustrated for quite some time with the constant push for premium content from the platform owned by Google. This has manifested in various ways such as unavoidable ads during gameplay, disruptive interruptions in the middle of my videos, and even intrusive ads popping up on pause screens. Now, it seems that lyrics could potentially become the next frontier in their subscription drive, which is causing a bit of unease among the gaming community.

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2025-09-11 22:19