YouTube Music is locking this key feature behind a paywall — because apparently Google has no shame

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Do we have to pay for lyrics now?

YouTube Music on phone
(Image credit: Future)

If you're like me, you might struggle to understand some of the lyrics you hear in songs. Sometimes you just can't hear what the correct words are, and trying to sing along just leads you to mumble the tune until you get back to something you know. Or maybe that's just me.

In any case, having one of the best music streaming services with the lyrics available makes it an awful lot easier to avoid embarrassing yourself during your home karaoke sessions. The problem is that YouTube Music has just started restricting lyrics access for free members.

Wait, what's happening here?

As spotted by users on social media and 9to5Google, YouTube Music is now restricting access to the lyrics feature if you're a free user. Apparently, you get access to full lyrics for just five songs, after which you're limited to the first few lines and a mess of blurred-out ineligible text.

Youtube music now needs premium for lyrics from r/youtube

YouTube Music is warning people about this, too, noting that they have X many views remaining, and that you have to subscribe to Premium to gain full access to lyrics thereafter. Apparently, YouTube Premium and Music Premium subscriptions are both equally valid in this respect. They'll cost you $14 and $11 a month, respectively.

The new paywall has apparently been in testing for a few months and is starting to roll out globally right now. I haven't experienced it on my own YouTube Music account just yet, which apparently means I'm one of the lucky ones. But presumably, I don't have very long to enjoy this feature, without being told to hand over wads of cash to Google each month.

It feels like YouTube's getting greedier

YouTube logo on phone

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

I'm not one of those people who constantly go on about how good things used to be and how much worse things have gotten over the years. But in the case of YouTube, it is absolutely true, and it feels like the constant attempts to push people to subscribe to Premium are behind at least half of the problems — maybe more.

The quality of ads on YouTube proper is a testament to this. There's been a very noticeable downgrade over the past several years, with ads getting longer, appearing in greater frequency and offering fewer options to skip.

Not to mention the fact that some of those ads are truly appalling, advertising some of the worst products and services I've ever seen. That includes what appear to be scam products and propaganda for hate groups. If ever there was a need for ad blockers, it's YouTube ads — so it's no wonder Google's gone to war with them.

Admittedly, keeping some features behind a paywall does make sense, even though it would be nice for them to be freely available. Ad-free listening, offline downloads, higher resolution videos and things of that caliber. Background listening is one that really should be free, though, even if it's only on YouTube Music and not available for videos.

Come on, though. Lyrics?

YouTube Premium logo on a phone in front of YouTube on a browser

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

And we're now at the point where YouTube is paywalling lyrics. Admittedly, lyrics are easily available online, but you have to go looking for them for each song. Having them available in your music streaming app is one of those quality-of-life features that makes your service that little bit nicer to use. But Google saw an opportunity to get more subscriptions, and apparently decided to take it.

YouTube isn't actually the first streaming service to try this either, since Spotify attempted to paywall lyrics back in 2024. But mass backlash from users caused the company to reverse course and make lyrics freely available again. As they should be. Because we're at the point where I want to know whether there's anything YouTube won't do to try and push people to subscribe to Premium.

I use the lyrics feature a lot. Not just so I can sing along to things without feeling silly, but also so I can sing along to my son more effectively and get him to finally go to sleep. Sometimes he needs the actual lyrics, because mumbled acapella versions of the song don't seem to have the same effect.

YouTube Music's feature isn't perfect, and I've found so many songs that straight-up don't have any lyrics. But the ones that do, even if they don't auto-play through each line, make using the app so much nicer. And Google's decided you, and I need to pay for the privilege, because the ad revenue apparently isn't cutting it.

What's next, limiting the number of songs you can listen to without paying? I remember the backlash when Spotify tried that too. It lasted almost 2 years before they switched it back, but by then, I had stopped using Spotify and never went back. I wouldn't put it past Google and YouTube to try, to be honest.

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Tom Pritchard
Tom Pritchard
UK Phones Editor

Tom is the Tom's Guide's UK Phones Editor, tackling the latest smartphone news and vocally expressing his opinions about upcoming features or changes. It's long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He’s usually found trying to squeeze another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining about how terrible his Smart TV is.

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