Spotify Has Added Three New Features for Displaying Song Lyrics, Including One I’ve Been Wanting for a Long Time.
Embedded lyrics are one of my favorite features of modern music streaming services. Back in the day, I had to Google the lyrics to the songs I was listening to—convenient if I was near my computer, but impossible when I was on the go with my iPod. That’s probably why I know the words to many songs, but when I read the actual lyrics, I discover they’re completely wrong. Embedded lyrics are a feature that’s both useful and thought-provoking.
It just so happens that Spotify’s existing lyrics features will receive some updates in early February. On Wednesday, the company announced three key updates—two for free users and one exclusive to Premium subscribers. Spotify may not offerdynamic lyrics like Apple Music , but these updates should still be welcomed by anyone who enjoys reading lyrics while listening.
Spotify now supports offline lyrics playback.
The most important announcement of the day, in my opinion, is offline lyrics support. This always annoys me when I’m using my phone without a cellular connection. For example, I download a few albums to listen to on a plane, and when I try to listen to them in airplane mode, the lyrics are unavailable. The ability to download song or album lyrics immediately after downloading is a small but truly important improvement.
Unfortunately, the ability to listen to lyrics offline isn’t available for free: it’s currently only available to Premium subscribers, which makes sense given that free users can’t download music for offline listening anyway—only podcasts.
Lyrics have moved to a new location in the Spotify app.
Traditionally, lyrics were displayed at the bottom of the Spotify player window. To see them, you had to scroll down and then tap the lyrics box to fully expand it. Spotify, it seems, wasn’t satisfied with this interface. The company claims that testing revealed that placing lyrics directly below the album art, rather than below the player, makes it easier to interact with. Therefore, lyrics are now displayed there.
The company calls this “lyrics preview” because you only see a snippet of lyrics at a time. This change is rolling out to both free and premium users on iOS and Android. If you don’t want to see lyrics at all, you can tap the three-dot menu and select “Lyrics Off.”
Spotify categorically states that this new layout will not affect the ability to share lyrics. You will still be able to send individual lyrics to friends and on social media. You will just need to do so through the new lyrics window.
Spotify now supports lyrics translation worldwide.
Spotify’s lyrics translation feature makes it easy to understand what artists are singing, even if you don’t speak their language. If you’re listening to a song in a language that doesn’t match your device’s system language, you’ll find a “Translate” button in the lyrics window. Click it, and Spotify will add the translation below each line so you can follow along.
According to Spotify, the feature was available in more than 25 countries by the end of last year, but the company is now rolling it out globally.