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UPDATE 2/10: YouTube Music claims a new paywall for lyrics is a limited test for select users rather than an official rollout.
“We are running an experiment with a small percentage of ad-supported users that may impact their ability to access the lyrics feature repeatedly," a spokesperson told Android Authority. "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.”
YouTube has yet to clarify how many users are involved in the experiment, how long it will last, or whether the brand will remove lyrics from free users at a later date.
Original Story 2/9:
YouTube Music now requires users to have a Premium subscription to view song lyrics. Google hasn’t confirmed the change yet, but users on the free tier are posting screenshots of blocked lyrics on Reddit.
As shown in the images, YouTube Music lets users view lyrics up to 5 times for free. Once they have exhausted their limited access, they’ll only see the first two lines; the rest are blurred out. They also see a banner at the top of the card that says, “You have 0 views remaining. Unlock lyrics with Premium.”
According to 9to5Google, the platform had been testing a paywall for lyrics over the last few months. It appears to be rolling out to users worldwide right now.
The standalone YouTube Music Premium subscription costs $10.99 per month in the US. Apart from lyrics, it unlocks ad-free listening, offline downloads, background play, easy switching between audio and video for supported tracks, and more. If you pay $2 more, you can get similar benefits for the YouTube app as well.
The news about YouTube Music’s paywall for lyrics arrives just days after Spotify rolled out lyrics with your offline downloads. It also added translations for users worldwide, while a new preview window now displays two lines of the lyrics in the Now Playing tab. Spotify Premium costs $12.99 per month, but basic lyrics access remains free to all non-paying listeners.
YouTube Music’s latest move could be aimed at nudging more users toward the Premium subscription. As 9to5Google notes, YouTube earned over $60 billion from ads and subscriptions in 2025 alone.