After testing, Spotify will launch its new real-time lyrics feature across Southeast Asia, India and Latin America as reported by Tech Crunch. This will be the first time 22 of the 26 markets in question will receive the feature in any form. A perfect time for many to try out Spotify, especially given the company has recently offered a three-month Premium trial to new customers.
Deezer also recently made lyrics available to all its desktop free users as well. Clearly, this type of feature is becoming more and more normalised in the industry. As a result, expect other companies to follow suit if they have not already.
Real-Time Lyrics to Launch in 22 New Markets
Real-time lyrics is something that has been coming for some time for Spotify. As mentioned, the company began testing the feature back in November so it has taken some time to get to this point. Of the 26 markets, this feature will launch into only Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Mexico have some form of the feature via another platform.
The launch is only possible because of an agreement with lyrics provider Musixmatch. This company was the source of the leaks last year that told us the feature would be coming soon. Spotify has previously worked with Musixmatch. However, the companies cut ties in 2016 as Spotify forged an agreement with Genius.
Around the time of testing, Canadian users were gaining access to real-time lyrics. However, reports suggest that at launch they will no longer have the feature available. The delay surrounding the role out is apparently due to issues around licensing.
Reports suggest that legally giving users access to lyrics has been tricky. Other companies have found similar issues with this area. Genius, for example, sued Google and its lyrics partner last year for stealing lyrics. Companies have had to resort to digital tricks in order to stop lyrics being stolen. These include watermarking songs but changing the look of certain bits of punctuation.
Who is Receiving the New Feature
As mentioned 26 markets are receiving real-time lyrics as part of the launch. These are 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 launch will go live at 10 a.m. EST on Tuesday, June 30. The idea is that the new feature will give users live lyrics in the language they are sung in. This is enabled by pressing the “Lyrics” button at the bottom of the “Now Playing” screen.
This will see the number of markets with real-time lyrics through Spotify grow to 27 out of 79. Japan already has the feature but through a different provider. The company claims that its partnership with Musixmatch will give the platform the largest catalog of lyrics in the world.