Spotify upgrades its lyrics feature with offline access, more translations

Spotify on Wednesday announced changes to its built-in song lyrics feature, which includes making lyrics translations globally available, offering the ability to view lyrics when offline, and relocating the feature in the app.

The changes follow other tweaks the streamer has made to lyrics over the years, hoping to leverage the feature as a tool to push free users to become subscribers. That began with Spotify trying to paywall lyrics in 2024, before loosening its grip later in the year after numerous complaints.

Now, the company hopes that the new offline lyrics feature — which will only be offered to Premium subscribers — could encourage users to upgrade.

In the new experience, lyrics will also be relocated so they appear directly beneath the album artwork or the short, looping video that plays alongside the music. Spotify says it chose to move lyrics to this more prominent position after user tests suggested it increased engagement with the feature. (It’s still possible to share favorite lyrics snippets to social media from the Now Playing View, the company noted.)

This feature, which Spotify called lyric previews, will roll out globally to both free and paid customers on the iOS and Android apps for smartphones and tablets.

In addition, lyrics translations, which were first introduced in 2022, will now be globally available. That’s an expansion from the 25 markets supported last year. When translations are available, you can tap the translate icon on the lyrics card to see the translation appear beneath the original lyrics. The translation will default to whatever your device’s language is set to, Spotify says.

In past years, Spotify had been slow to roll out lyrics across its app, largely due to licensing issues. After years of consumer demand for the feature, the company finally rolled out real-time lyrics to global users in 2021 after a smaller launch in a couple of dozen markets the year prior, and tests that spanned back to 2019. Before this, Spotify had partnered with Genius for a “behind the lyrics” feature, which combined partial lyrics with song trivia.