RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Along with the release of iOS 13, Apple Music has added a function displaying the lyrics of the song being played, all in real-time. By the looks of it, Spotify does not intend to fall behind in this matter: in partnership with Musixmatch, the service started to test a similar function in its apps.
If you are an old Spotify user, you may have had a “déjà vu” feeling. The service displayed song lyrics for a while, but it lost this feature in 2016, after the end of its partnership with Musixmatch.
Now, the two companies are reconnecting. Users in countries such as Canada, Indonesia, and Mexico have reported on social media that the function displaying real-time song lyrics is popping up in their accounts.
The “old new” feature resembles Karaoke and features just below the playback controls in Spotify for Android and iOS apps. A full-screen display of lyrics is also available.
Based on the evidence, Spotify has not denied that the song lyrics function is under testing. But don’t get too excited: at TechCrunch, the company explained that testing is only being carried out in a few markets – the company has not reported which. In addition, the number of “contemplated” users is small. It is not yet clear when or if the function will be launched globally.
On the other hand, one can hold some expectations. Spotify already accounts for 113 million paying users, while Apple Music records around 60 million. The company has been improving its platform to retain leadership and, as lyrics are a recurring request from users, so there are good chances that this function is part of these efforts.