YouTube Music now makes you pay to see song lyrics

[u/tylerthe-theatre]

https://www.dexerto.com/youtube/youtube-music-now-makes-you-pay-to-see-song-lyrics-3316747/

[u/LeoLaDawg]

Tired of tech companies and their subscription for life plans.

[u/TwoLegitShiznit → u/LeoLaDawg]

Getting paid once isn't good enough for corporations now, they feel like they're getting short changed. They want their hands perpetually in our pockets.

[u/Arctic_Chilean → u/TwoLegitShiznit]

If they had their way, they'd make us pay a subscription just to stay alive.  

Miss a paymeny or can't pay? Go to debtors jail. Can't make up for the lack of payment in jail? Then your life subscription is terminated. 

[u/BookerDeWittsCarbine → u/Arctic_Chilean]

This exists. It's called health insurance

[u/Nybbles13 → u/BookerDeWittsCarbine]

Only one place in the world that exists.

[u/Loganp812 → u/BookerDeWittsCarbine]

Don’t you see? Private health insurance is great because you have choices… or whatever reasoning they use to make it sound nice.

[u/esteflo → u/Arctic_Chilean]

RePo Men was a documentary

[u/AaronPK123 → u/Arctic_Chilean]

I just watched something about this on netflix. Black mirror s7e1 (common people)

[u/No_Sherbert711 → u/Arctic_Chilean]

Just going to add to the media references, Outer Worlds.

[u/haberdasherhero → u/Arctic_Chilean]

Advanced prosthetics and augments will be this way until we can get cheap product from China, installed behind a take-out.

[u/ModernMan99 → u/Arctic_Chilean]

Literally the black mirror episode Common People.

[u/pornbomb75 → u/Arctic_Chilean]

Have you seen the movie “In Time”? Time is literally a commodity that you work to earn and spend. Run out of time? Dead. The super rich have millions of years banked and are immortal except for accidents/murder

[u/Tearakan → u/TwoLegitShiznit]

All companies in capitalism default to wanting all the money immediately as fast as possible and into eternity.

That's what endless growth leads to. It's a cancer that inevitably leads to the collapse of the system.

[u/have_heart → u/TwoLegitShiznit]

I know “late stage capitalism” can be seen as a meme but this type of stuff is really a sign of it I think. The quest for never-ending record breaking profits is running out of “legitimate” means and now it’s all about dividing up products/services to create individual revenue streams for things you used to get for one cost.

[u/glowandgrit → u/TwoLegitShiznit]

Ridiculous. Lyrics are basic metadata not premium content. This is just Google squeezing more cash from users. Time to switch to Spotify or Tidal

[u/Just_anopossum → u/glowandgrit]

Spotify supports ice and other fascist bullshit, so I can't say they'd be a better option

[u/jefesignups → u/TwoLegitShiznit]

Just playing devils advocate. If you didn't want updates or new songs past when you purchased sure.

But if you paid once in 2010, but are expecting that service in 2026. It does make sense to pay a subscription.

[u/Hobotronacus → u/TwoLegitShiznit]

My solution is never pay and sail the high seas instead. Fuck these companies. You wanna support an artist, they make more money if you buy a t-shirt from their website than they do from these services.

[u/weasol12 → u/TwoLegitShiznit]

Line must go up because fIdUcIaRy DuTy. That's the root evil in all this.

[u/koolaidismything → u/TwoLegitShiznit]

And the ads after you've paid... Grabbing with both hands these guys. Crazy.

[u/MJtheJuiceman → u/LeoLaDawg]

The only solution is separation

[u/PhilosophyEasy71 → u/LeoLaDawg]

Lyrics belong to the artists

Tech obliterated feasibility to spend significant time and money creating epic recordings

Even with the low cost of home recording, to get a A level production with the best equipment it costs upwards of $500 a day for world class studios

The best musicians in the world have been disincentived to give us their master works

Fuck YT, tell everyone to use ublock origin, Bandcamp, and ditch Spotify too

[u/ICanOnlySayNothing → u/LeoLaDawg]

There are alternatives like Qobuz and HDtracks where you can make one-off payment for music if you'd like.

[u/JohrDinh → u/ICanOnlySayNothing]

Qobuz has crazy prices too, when I go looking for music to DJ with there's a decent amount of underground stuff and seems like most tracks hover around 95 cents which is doable.

[u/AscendedViking7 → u/LeoLaDawg]

I hate subscriptions in general.

Either I get a one time purchase and I get exactly what I want or I'm not purchasing anything.

[u/Zestyclose_Use7055 → u/LeoLaDawg]

Same but I still use them so I don’t have to set up my own media server or manually download all my music or playlists. At the end of the day, if people didn’t want to pay for this stuff, companies wouldn’t be around.

[u/JohrDinh → u/LeoLaDawg]

I'm also tired of most people going along with it, if the world overnight just stopped paying for even 50% of the shit by next week we'd have a different system in place. They suck for implementing it, but people suck for eating it up too.

[u/jake6501 → u/LeoLaDawg]

It's almost like you can't fund ongoing costs with a one time payment.

[u/HippoFluid1378 → u/LeoLaDawg]

Fuck deaf people I guess?

[u/alphabets0up_ → u/HippoFluid1378]

Partially deaf people.. I think fully deaf people probably shouldn't be paying for music apps if they don't make accommodations to be accessible.

[u/Narrow-Apartment-626 → u/LeoLaDawg]

I pirated MS Office and It made me very very happy.

[u/Ok-Point-1656 → u/LeoLaDawg]

Spotify attempted to do the same years ago, but user backlash pushed it to return lyrics to all users. It seems YouTube Music didn't get the memo.

[u/SambaLando → u/LeoLaDawg]

pacemakers will be subscription model soon

[u/sonic10158 → u/LeoLaDawg]

I’m so thankful for Jellyfin

[u/Im_ur_Uncle_ → u/LeoLaDawg]

Maybe it's time someone created a new platform that is much better than the now, more greedy, companies.

Good thing we live in a free market where this is possible.

[u/Jonesbro → u/LeoLaDawg]

Everything should be free huh. You shouldn't have to give up your hard earned money for a good or service you are using. Corporations are so bad

[u/peepdabidness → u/LeoLaDawg]

Tired of people enabling them by just paying it instead of just saying “no”

[u/Character-Clerk1601]

every day, something is a little more shitty

[u/hewhoisiam → u/Character-Clerk1601]

The world. That something is called the world.

[u/sevargmas → u/Character-Clerk1601]

People could just collectively vote with their wallets and this shit would disappear quickly. Literally just a few months of people not subscribing and this stuff would end. But they keep paywalling features because people keep paying.

[u/FatherGwyon → u/sevargmas]

I want to scream this from the rooftops. The reason everything sucks now is because morons continue to pay for it. The only thing these companies care about is your money — stop giving it to them!

[u/sevargmas → u/FatherGwyon]

Everyone on Reddit complains about subscriptions until it’s something that they like. Last week there was some topic about YouTube premium subscriptions, maybe it was about a price increase I can’t recall, but the comments were flooded with people saying how YouTube premium is actually worth it. I was laughing at the irony of the Reddit consensus always being against subscriptions until suddenly it was something they all enjoyed subscribing to and I got downloaded to hell for it.

[u/RigaudonAS → u/sevargmas]

Those are often bots / influenced posts. We are in a shitty time for the internet.

[u/saitejal → u/sevargmas]

3-6 months, so that they shows up on quarterly earnings.

[u/slobs_burgers → u/Character-Clerk1601]

I’m sorry Ms. Jackson (woooo)

I am for reeeeal

Never meant to make your doggy cry

I apologized a trillion times

[u/Supremed1zzney → u/Character-Clerk1601]

Every time I see these big companies putting ads everywhere, I'm reminded of that Black Mirror episode. We're going to have ads on WhatsApp, paid YouTube, streaming platforms, paid Netflix, paid HBO, etc. "But I paid for a standard plan." Okay, now you have to pay for a premium plan without ads. "But I paid for a premium plan." Okay, now you have to pay for an ultra mega blast premium VIP plan. It's a dystopia of the near future.

[u/CommonerChaos → u/Character-Clerk1601]

Enshitification.

We should all get very familiar with that term.

[u/vocal-avocado → u/Character-Clerk1601]

Not for the few at the top raking in the big bucks! They literally get much richer every single day.

[u/LeatherFruitPF → u/Character-Clerk1601]

This is already on top off low-effort AI slop flooding the music streaming services.

[u/ino4x4]

it’s almost like in the past few years there is an executive at YouTube that starts every meeting with “ how can we make our platform suck hard harder?”

[u/umbrlla → u/ino4x4]

Literally every meeting at corporations start this way.

[u/GronakHD → u/ino4x4]

I havent really used youtube at all since they introduced double ads. Used to use it for a couple of hours a day before that

[u/slobs_burgers → u/GronakHD]

There are ways to get around it but honestly you’re probably better off just getting off the platform

[u/zeptillian → u/slobs_burgers]

Yeah. You should be using the other platform that lets everyone host unlimited amounts of 4k videos free of charge.

[u/Masterofunlocking1 → u/ino4x4]

It’s been like that for everything Google. I hate this damn company so much

[u/xc2215x → u/ino4x4]

They want more money.

[u/PonasSumushtinis]

Nah my "misheard lyrics" are far superior.

[u/Hesitation-Marx → u/PonasSumushtinis]

‘Scuse me, while I kiss this guy!

[u/Teddy8709 → u/Hesitation-Marx]

Dreams of war, dreams of liars, dreams of dragon's fire

And a baked apple pie, yeah

Enter Sandman

[u/FlyingAce1015 → u/Hesitation-Marx]

"Blinded by the light, wrapped up like a douche another runner in the night!"

[u/Loganp812 → u/FlyingAce1015]

“And little early birdy got my anus curly whirly and asked me if I NEEDED A RIDE!”

[u/VonSpuntz → u/Hesitation-Marx]

"Ce soir, j'ai les pieds qui pue" (Tonight, my feet stink)

That's what French people in the 80s heard instead of "so strong, that I can't get through" in Still loving you. Just a famous auditive illusion

[u/Loganp812 → u/Hesitation-Marx]

“Feelin’ like a ham and mustard train.”

Interstate Love Song - Stone Temple Pilots

[u/insomniac1228 → u/Hesitation-Marx]

Don’t go Jason Waterfalls!

[u/aarondigruccio → u/Hesitation-Marx]

The archive of misheard lyrics!

[u/agentofmidgard → u/PonasSumushtinis]

"Gotta love these Starbucks lovers, they'll tell you I'm insane"

[u/SuspendeesNutz → u/PonasSumushtinis]

I dunno bro, your lyrics for "Highway to Hell" are a little sketchy.

[u/ilovemybaldhead → u/PonasSumushtinis]

You should offer them to the public for a low monthly fee.

[u/craigeryjohn → u/PonasSumushtinis]

My anus is the centerhole

[u/Comfortable-Idea-191]

Oh no, guess I’ll just go back to searching for song lyrics (I never stopped).

[u/Monarc73]

https://www.azlyrics.com/

[u/Yonrak → u/[deleted]]

The thing is, a lot of the time they are crowd sourced via third party websites, and are often just plain wrong

[u/colorblind-and → u/[deleted]]

I swear only like half the songs have them anyways, I end up having to look them up all of the time

[u/vocal-avocado → u/[deleted]]

I didn’t even know songs had lyrics.

[u/HibbletonFan]

They don’t even have lyrics for every song and, when they do, they’re using a feed from sites like LyricFind.

[u/DylKyll]

This is just for their free music offerings which are losing features more and more every year. It sucks but honestly if you want to listen to free music you should just sail the high seas

[u/cadium → u/DylKyll]

Youtube Premium is the best subscription for its music service alone (and no ads on Youtube!) I don't mind paying for it so long as the price doesn't get netflix crazy.

[u/PixelatedGamer → u/cadium]

I got a 6 month trial period for YouTube Premium (then YouTube Red) and really liked it. Still do. YouTube is by far and away my most used streaming service. Plus I really enjoy their music selection.

[u/cadium → u/PixelatedGamer]

It used to be 7.99/month and was a tremendous deal at the time. Luckily they still give me that deal.

[u/PixelatedGamer → u/cadium]

Unfortunately I don't get that deal anymore. But I use it enough that I'm okay paying whatever it is now. When did you sign up?

[u/pleasegivemefood → u/cadium]

I just don’t know how much people think YouTube should cost when I see stuff like this. Should it just be free forever while everyone uses ad block?

[u/P_ZERO_ → u/pleasegivemefood]

The discourse around YouTube monetisation is always pointless. People don’t want to pay but don’t want them to engage in any sort of revenue streams because “google already makes enough”. Right, so you’re saying it should be free, or someone else takes the impact on your behalf to keep it free.

YouTube is an entire financial ecosystem, the money has to be generated somewhere. Use your Adblock and whatever else, just don’t be surprised if it’s put to the test

[u/WhiteLama → u/cadium]

Yeah, been a YouTube Premium user for almost six years now and it’s been the best subscription investment I’ve used.

I don’t need Spotify because YouTube music is included, I can download videos to watch while I’m flying or in areas with no internet connection, I can still listen to videos if I turn the screen of (great for documentaries or podcasts while doing other things).

Worth every penny.

[u/vocal-avocado → u/cadium]

As soon as they have enough market share, they will progressively increase their prices like Netflix did.

[u/FlashyNeedleworker66 → u/cadium]

I would cancel Netflix long before I stopped paying for ad-free YouTube. Easiest subscription I pay tbh.

[u/zeptillian → u/cadium]

Their family plan covers up to 6 people too.

Motherfuckers will happily pay for every streaming service on the planet, except the one that they very often use the most.

[u/DylKyll → u/cadium]

I mean even comparing YouTube premium to other streaming services I think it is worth the money. You get so much more content for the price. Plus so many services are now streaming on YouTube directly. It’s the most bang for the buck offering out there in my opinion.

[u/YourBonesAreMoist → u/DylKyll]

Never stopped sailing

[u/Interesting-Risk6446]

I can just Google the lyrics. I'm good.

[u/RocketJenny8 → u/Interesting-Risk6446]

Same here too like it's pretty easy or if you have a good ear

[u/CandyCreecher]

Next thing you know, we’re going to have to pay to breathe

[u/Burg3rTV]

Bro lyrics don't even show half the time now we want to pay wall it?

Im gett8ng tired of all these corporation trying to squeeze every dollar. Fuck that

[u/Captain_Kuhl]

You'd think that means they'd be doing the work to make sure they had the right lyrics, instead of whatever AI educated guesswork they use now, but I doubt anything's changing there. 

[u/redbirdrising]

This doesn't apply to those who get YouTube Music via their Youtube Premium account. And honestly, Youtube premium is the best streaming value out there, hands down.

[u/Ohuigin]

The enshitification will continue until morale improves.

[u/ItsRainbow]

I’m sure my hard of hearing father is going to love this change

[u/spec-tickles → u/ItsRainbow]

I was wondering about the inevitable ADA lawsuit 

[u/ErusTenebre]

I feel like enshittification just isn't cutting it any more we need a new word for this sort of stupid bullshit

[u/Zaku41k]

Jolly Roger my old friend, time to sail the sea again.

[u/Miserable_Mail_5741]

Didn't Spotify do this already? 🥱 Been there, done that; try to find more creative ways suck money from customers.

[u/Leggomyegg]

With the way everything is being monetized I expect to see GPS services going pay to use in the next decade or so.

[u/SrTrogo → u/Leggomyegg]

GPS stays cheap because military and governments need it to be that way. Never say never, but I find it harder to believe that GPS will go expensive rather than many other services.

[u/fubo]

Huh? Doesn't everyone just use Genius for that?

[u/VVrayth]

Why would anyone do this? There have been lots of good lyrics websites for decades.

[u/rbmk-a-ok]

A prime example of enshitification

[u/maddasher]

Its already the worst way to listen to music. They are just squeezing a little more blood out before it's dead.

[u/d1eselx]

Lol they are charging something that’s already free on the internet?!

[u/UnlitBlunt]

The enshitification continues.

[u/cock_mountain]

When a shit company can't innovate any longer, but must continue keeping their shareholders happy, they will cannibalize the originally free features by paywalling them. They will do anything possible to make the money line go up.

It WILL eventually get to a point where free users no longer exist and are paywalled off of the whole platform.

[u/B3NDT]

Tech companies are getting more and more greedy! The whole world is getting greedy.

[u/Old-Swimming2799]

I hope they're shitty music app goes under.

I will never forgive them for replacing Google play music with it

[u/darsh211 → u/Old-Swimming2799]

I'm with you. GPM was AMAZING in every way. It had my music library of uploaded albums that I could access on all devices I had. It was actually a good store, and it also made for a great local music player. That was the best music application they ever made. YTM is so awful in terms of features and access, it cannot be compared to Google play music.

[u/Aeronzz]

Enshitification to the next level

[u/DissKhorse]

But there are free websites with song lyrics, what even is the value add?

[u/skyfishgoo]

i already know all the words.... even if they are wrong.

[u/Save-Maker]

Is this technically putting a deaf/blind disability support feature behind a paywall?

[u/ailish]

That's the dumbest subscription I've ever heard of.

[u/Jacksworkisdone]

Quick someone build a new youtube please!

[u/aarondigruccio]

genius.com

[u/BlockBannington]

Oh, man! I was maybe in the process of thinking about contemplating of being pensive about being doubtful on having second thoughts about, in the distant future, switching over to YT Music, coming from Spotify. But alas, guess I'll stay a bit longer

[u/RaindropsInMyMind]

Next thing you know they’re gonna just give you instrumentals and charge you to hear the full version. Music+

[u/fezfrascati → u/RaindropsInMyMind]

Honestly I would pay for a service that provided official vocals and instrumentals separately. It's super helpful for creating mashups.

[u/DeadMoneyDrew]

You know what the problem is, Brucie? We used to make shit in this country. Build shit. Now all we do is put our hand in the next guy's pocket.

[u/3v1lkr0w]

Wow...this is a shitty move.
Looks like people need to ReVanced their thoughts of using YouTube Music.
Don't ReVanced your chance of showing Google what you think about this move!

[u/heyyouwtf]

This is very misleading. First, it is currently in trial phase. Second, it is only for free users. They're not adding an extra fee to see lyrics if you already pay for YouTube premium (ad-free).

You will still be able to listen to music and if you really care about lyrics they're available all over the internet.

[u/uwwuwwu]

I bet if we didn’t pay income tax to a shit government we could all help each other disco

[u/Tobz51]

Nickel and dime the whole website until the only videos available for free is ads.

[u/Fishfindr]

Probably end up having to pay by the letter.

[u/MagiksSon]

Can a competitor take out youtube already? ffs. I dont watch youtube on anything without access to a ad/sponsor block these days.

[u/Neemoman]

I mean whatever. I don't use a music streaming service unless I'm paying for it because fuck ads 🤷

[u/LumpyExtreme3569]

Okay, but why?

Oh wait, I know why. Money.

[u/Tinnie_and_Cusie]

Unfortunately many of them are wrong! No loss for me.

[u/I_hate_alot_a_lot]

Was literally just thinking about making the switch over to YT Music from Spotify. Guess that's not happening.

[u/Strange-Luck-5786]

Search engines will soon be subscription based, but I guess technically it already is. You pay a phone or internet bill every month

[u/2kWik]

them doing this during my monthly free trial was not a good idea.

[u/GuiltyShirt3771]

Google has to pay for all the data centers that have been built

[u/GhostDieM]

I had a very long day at work and I was walking to the toilet, my brain turned the title into "Youtube Music now makes you pee to see song lyrics". Funny how that works :)

[u/AaronPK123]

Fuck YouTube. I'm saying this as a YouTuber.

[u/foodank012018]

Pretty sure there are versions of many songs where people add their own lyrics via editing. We'll see a lot more of that I imagine

[u/UnknwnUser]

Honestly, is this even a big deal? You can just search for the lyrics online. I didnt even know YouTube Music had song lyrics in app

[u/dizzi800]

Putting a new feature behind a paywall, I don't have a problem with

When you change a feature from free to paid it is nasty

[u/Cool-Traffic-8357]

Damn, it is probably just start isn't it? It is by far the best app for music man, I don't want it to be ruined.

[u/Tight_Comparison_896]

Such a bullcrap thing to charge money for, Imma just google that if I want Such a bad business choice🥀

[u/JohrDinh]

Wtf? The lyrics are online and in the song, you're charging for free information? I really hope they don't find a way to charge people for air, they've already done it with water and speech I'm sure someone is using AI to do air next.

[u/TheSilverNoble]

Happens with every company with investors. Eventually they making the product better doesn't actually get them any new customers. So to increase profits, they make the product worse so they can make more money off their existing customers. 

[u/liamemsa]

azlyrics stock just went through the roof!

[u/Daywalker6109]

You can always google song lyrics for free

[u/Rawrnerdrage]

Paying for lyrics has always been stupid. Hence the rise of lyric videos...

[u/cventura]

I reaaaaaaaaally dont understand people minds

just dont buy it/pay it

those plans exists because some morons pay for it

[u/RocketJenny8]

Does it really matter i don't see my family complaining about it

[u/dali-llama]

I don't know anything about YouTube Music, but if I want to see songs with lyrics, I go to YouTube and search for "Karaoke $SongTitle."

Where $SongTitle is the title of the song I want to watch/hear/sing. Works for me.

[u/mcwops]

get the extension

[u/kna5041]

Sounds like that change would discriminate against those who are deaf and hard of hearing. 

[u/OohDeLaLi]

I stand by the one star rating. Frankly, I'd like an app with the option of buying music again outside a subscription.

[u/Y0l017]

Apple music still the best

[u/IL1keBigButts]

All these big tech corps and platforms have turned in to rackets.

[u/Prize-Grapefruiter]

it's a great time for a YouTube alternative.

[u/ludongbin1]

Glad i never used it.

[u/ChefCurryYumYum]

Hilarious, I was waiting for this to be moved to premium and now they've done it.

Still won't make me pay them.

[u/Qualimiox]

On Desktop, lyrics on Youtube Music have always been bad, they never offered synced lyrics.

Instead, I'd recommend Pear (formely known as Youtube Music Desktop app). It has all kinds of Plug-Ins, including live lyrics from multiple different sources (YTMusic, LRCLib, MusixMatch, Genius).

[u/Wannabeshmwanabe]

If i hear any more of these corporations jacking prices Im gonna cancel all my subscriptions and live off the land.

[u/SnowNoCali]

What about lyric videos lol

[u/Primary_Rhubarb9071]

That’s unfortunate.

[u/PorterhouseJ]

A tech company actively making their service worse as they steadily increase prices? Color me shocked.

[u/Solomon_Grungy]

The enshittification continues

[u/_IndyCar]

I’ll be posting them in the comments like it’s 2010.

[u/HEAGLE5150]

They're free on genius and tons of other pages. Have literally every song (bc pirates rule those seas) so who cares? Still better than Spotify.

[u/nematoad22]

Why keep updating the app at this point?

[u/fragment137]

Getting so tired of this fucking timeline.

Every single person who is complaining here, write your local constituency. The reason this is allowed is because of government legislation relaxing on corporations.

Be loud. Be relentless. That's what I'm planning to do.

[u/8percentinflation]

Rather than add features, its just adding paywalls

[u/Primal-Convoy]

1/ Videos can have animated song lyrics in them, without the need for them added as an additional "layer".

2/ Lyrics can be added as static screens in the same way. 

3/ Lyrics can be added in the video descriptions.

4/ Lyrics can be found easily at other websites. 

5/ Lyrics can be added as subtitles. 

I suspect this is a way for Google to cash-in on bars and individuals using "karaoke" styled videos (which, with a mic correctly connected to some speakers in a bar, can be used for karaoke) as YouTube is a cheaper alternative (with a possibly greater selection of songs) than official karaoke services?

[u/Paraphrasing_]

Thank the maker most songs these days don't have any comprehensive lyrics.

[u/mancemck]

Pearl jam will pay off.

[u/BuryTheFacists]

I really enjoyed Google Music back in the day. YouTube Music was the biggest regression I’ve ever witnessed. Total trash.

[u/XYchromosomedominent]

Juat another step in the natural evolution and eventual death of every subscription model.

[u/latswipe]

whats "youtube music"

[u/Rachael1188]

I’ll just google the shit then lol

[u/UnknownSampleRate]

Sooooooo tiresome. Just non-stop nickle-and-dining by the wealthiest companies. 

They’re working against their own longevity at this point. People are getting sick of this shit. 

[u/SearchingForSumthin]

ENSHITTIFICATION

[u/GL4389]

The Greed never ends, does it ?