Spotify upgrades its lyrics feature with offline access, more translations

Spotify on Wednesday announced changes to its built-in song lyrics feature, which includes making lyrics translations available globally, providing the ability to view lyrics when offline and moving the feature to the app.

The changes follow other tweaks the streamer has made to lyrics over the years, hoping to use the feature as a tool to push free users to subscribe. This started with Spotify trying to create a paywall verses 2024, before relaxing later in the year after numerous complaints.

Now, the company hopes the new offline lyrics feature – which will only be offered to Premium subscribers – could encourage users to upgrade.

In the new experience, the lyrics will also be moved to appear directly below the album art or short video that plays along with the music. Spotify says it chose to move lyrics to this more prominent position after user tests suggested it increased engagement with the feature. (It’s still possible to share snippets of favorite lyrics on social media from the Now Playing view, the company noted.)

This feature, which Spotify has dubbed lyric previews, will be available globally to both free and paid customers on its iOS and Android apps for smartphones and tablets.

In addition, the lyrics translations, which were first introduced in 2022, will now be available worldwide. This is an expansion from the 25 markets supported last year. When translations are available, you can tap the translation icon on the lyrics card to see the translation appear below the original lyrics. The translation will default to whatever language your device is set to, Spotify says.

In previous years, Spotify has been slow to release lyrics to its app, mostly due to licensing issues. After years of consumer demand for the feature, the company finally rolled out real-time lyrics to global users in 2021 after a smaller rollout in a few dozen markets the previous year and tests that ran into 2019. Before that, Spotify had partnered with Genius for a “behind the lyrics” feature, which paired part-song with part-song.