YouTube Music has started restricting access to full song lyrics for users on its free tier, marking a significant change to the streaming service’s feature set. What was once a complimentary tool for sing-alongs and follow-along listening is now being partially gated behind a Premium subscription as part of YouTube’s broader strategy to drive more paid sign-ups.
Under the new rollout which appears to have expanded globally after months of limited testing free users can view full lyrics for only about five songs per month. Once that quota is reached, only the first few lines of lyrics remain visible, while the rest of the text is blurred and inaccessible unless the listener upgrades to YouTube Music Premium or YouTube Premium.
The limitation is enforced directly in the Now Playing screen’s lyrics tab, which shows a counter of remaining views along with a prompt to “Unlock lyrics with Premium.” After hitting the five-view threshold, users must subscribe to continue seeing full lyrics.
Lyrics were first added to YouTube Music in 2020 and quickly became a widely used feature for users who enjoy understanding songs better, singing along, or learning lyrics in different languages. The decision to place this functionality behind a paywall has drawn attention because most other major streaming services, such as Spotify, continue to offer full lyrics access to both free and Premium subscribers.
YouTube Music Premium, which includes the unlocked lyrics feature along with ad-free playback, offline downloads, and background listening, costs around $10.99 per month. YouTube Premium, priced at about $13.99 per month, adds benefits across the broader YouTube ecosystem.
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