The streaming giant Spotify confirmed Tuesday morning that it’s officially testing a live lyrics feature for United States users. The tech-oriented blog Engadget interacted with a spokesperson from Spotify, who stated: “We can confirm we’re currently testing our lyrics feature to a select number of users in the US.”
As suggested in the quote above, the feature is not available for every user right now. The company is indeed still in the testing phase, which will measure the demand for a live lyrics feature in time.
Live lyrics are not a new thing actually, as it has been offered in 27 countries already. Moreover, Spotify did them in the US from 2011 through 2016 when they partnered with Musixmatch. Their relationship ended abruptly and Spotify never brought back the feature, despite the high demand for it.
As you know by now, other countries are enjoying the live lyrics feature. Last year, Spotify announced the launch of real-time lyrics in 26 of them – the 27th being South Korea who came in recently -, reigniting the relationship with Musixmatch. Musixmatch confirmed its partnership with Spotify on the current US tests.
There is obviously no guarantee that the feature will appear on a wider scale. Canada has been the subject of similar tests last June and it did not end in the materialization of the live lyrics feature.
This move could potentially recalibrate the imbalance created by Spotify’s competitors that started to offer this feature. Both Amazon Music and Apple music have their own system of real-time lyrics. In a time of a pandemic, this tool sure could come handy.
Spotify did not want to comment further on if or when the testing phase will expand. After losing 5.2 Billion in one day, I’m sure we are gonna hear from it sooner than later.