YouTube Music starts limiting lyrics for free users

YouTube Music has started putting lyrics — a previously free feature introduced in 2020 — behind a paywall, according to multiple users and 9to5Google. In the latest update, the “Lyrics” tab in the Now Playing screen displays a warning message: “You have [x] views remaining. Unlock lyrics with Premium.” Free users get lyrics for five songs, then after that, will only see a few lines before the rest of the song is blurred.

Google has been testing the feature since at least September with a limited number of users, according to previous reports. It’s been speculated that YouTube may have made the change to recuperate costs spent with lyric aggregators like Musixmatch. Spotify also put lyrics behind its Premium paywall in 2024, but a user backlash forced it to reinstate the feature for free users.

Google has yet to confirm the change, and while it appears to be a larger rollout, the feature change could still be in testing. YouTube Music’s Premium subscription costs $10.99 in the US with ad-free playback, offline downloads, AI features and more — the same as its main rivals Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music.