In what's been called an "experiment" by YouTube Music, the popular content platform will now restrict some ad-supported users from seeing lyrics on songs unless they pay for them.
With so many options to choose from, music streaming platforms are always looking for a way to maintain profitability. Unsurprisingly, these efforts have at times caused public outrage and controversy.
Recently, YouTube Music has been the platform under scrutiny. Users realized that the company was running an "experiment" that locked scrollable lyrics for some users after a few song plays. These users were told they must pay for a Premium subscription in order to continue enjoying the scrollable lyric feature.
"One of the main reasons I loved using the app"
According to 9to5Google.com, YouTube Music began widely incorporating the change in early February. Non-Premium users noticed a pop-up that counted down 5 lyric views until they had to "unlock lyrics with Premium." These users could continue listening to music with lyrics by purchasing YouTube Music Premium or YouTube Premium, a departure from the formerly free function.
Many users were unhappy with this change, citing that the scrollable lyric feature was why they chose YouTube Music as their preferred music streaming service in the first place.
"This has been disappointing because the lyrics were one of the main reasons I loved using the app," said X user @j_nnie16. Another X user simply said, "scam. This is greedy and predatory."
Redditors also criticized the change as a suspicious way for YouTube Music to make even more money from their listeners. "Locking basic stuff like lyrics and background listening behind a subscription just feels greedy," said one Redditor.
Another said, "I hate the idea of pay-walling something that was traditionally free. It's just a snidey, artificial, and anti-consumer way to inflate value in your paid product."
But some didn't care about the change, stating that there were bigger problems with the platform's functionality.
One Redditor commented, "mfs from a trillion dollar company micro-monetizing the app instead of fixing basic stuff like shuffle working while casting is kind of insane."
"We are running an experiment"
In a statement from YouTube Music, representative Alex McQuiston said that the change was far less widespread than it seems. Additionally, making a finite number of scrollable lyrics replays was temporary, meant to learn more about the listener's needs.
"We are running an experiment with a small percentage of ad-supported users that may impact their ability to access the lyrics feature repeatedly," the statement read. "We often run experiments on YouTube Music to better inform our decisions around feature improvements. The majority of our global users will not see any changes to the lyrics feature.”
The statement emphasized that no permanent change has been made, and lyrics are still available for most YouTube Music users.
According to 9to5Google, YouTube’s 2025 revenues surpassed $60 billion, so it's no wonder the public is critical of changes—"experiment" or not.
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