YouTube Music Just Paywalled A Fan-Favorite Feature
YouTube continues to paywall features, from hacks that people were using to bypass some limitations to legitimate, useful tools. According to 9to5Google, the latest feature to move behind the paywall is the ability to see lyrics on YouTube Music. If you don't pay for YouTube Music, there will be a limit to the number of lyrics you can see while listening to your favorite songs.
This move comes a few years after Spotify followed a similar path with its ad-supported version. In 2024, the app limited free users to seeing lyrics for three songs until they were cut off. After significant online backlash, the company removed the three-song limit and increased it to a number "higher than any single user has even neared," a Spotify spokesperson told 9to5Google at the time.
The controversy clearly wasn't enough to scare off YouTube from pulling the same stunt. Copying yet another decision of its biggest rival, YouTube Music free users have access to lyrics for just five songs per month. After that, only a few lines of a song's lyrics will show up on screen before an offer to sign up for a Premium subscription pops up.
There's a workaround
At the end of the day, it's still possible to find millions of free videos on the platform featuring the lyrics of songs. While this is not the most practical way to use YouTube as a music streaming service, the alternative is signing up for YouTube Music Premium or YouTube Premium.
Google recently reported over 325 million paid subscribers across its services, and it's clear that the company wants to push that number higher by any means necessary. Even though I am an Apple Music user, I also use YouTube Music as part of my YouTube Premium subscription. While this isn't a perk I use often, I do understand how poor the experience of an ad-based service can be, as I will occasionally use Spotify to send songs to friends, and the ads can be frustrating.
Needless to say, YouTube has a long history of ensuring users either watch ads or pay up. In recent months, we've seen YouTube go to war on ad blockers, prevent users from listening to videos in the background, and increase the number of ads shown before, during, and after a video.