Spotify Lyrics Gone! Who Else Hates Their ‘Humming is Fun’ Hiatus?

Spotify used to be the powerful “freemium” platform for all music lovers. Though it has a paid service, what made Spotify stand out is its massive array of available local and international artists and the lyrics feature. Now, the lyrics feature is gone and we are not sure when it is coming back.

Musixmatch is the lyrics button on the Spotify desktop and mobile apps. It was February last year when they introduced this feature that would make the app even more addictive. Tidal’s supposed edge was the high-def music videos. However, for most music enthusiasts, the lyrics and the sound is more than enough to satisfy their past time.

“Today we’re launching a desktop update with new features and improvements. First of all, we’re making lyrics a seamless part of the Spotify experience on desktop. Powered by Musixmatch, the world’s largest lyrics catalogue, the ability to sing along to your favourite tunes is just a click away.”

Just as Spotify broke the news, the “next sing-along” tool invited more users to the platform.

However, just a couple of days ago, Spotify decided to remove this feature. They are now greeting fans with a “Humming is fun” message, adding that they are making some improvements on the feature. This was not a good experience to Spotify users at all.

Apparently, Spotify’s partnership with Musixmatch is ending, and this just means all of their songs are going live without any lyrics in them.

“We can confirm our partnership with Musixmatch is ending. It was a great partnership and there is mutual respect between both companies as our business strategies move us each in different directions.”

Interestingly, though the music brand claims it was an amicable separation, Musixmatch’s posts on Medium last Wednesday was a little sketchy.

“We regret the end of this partnership, but we must keep to our product and our users above all else. We will not allow anybody to ignore our business model.”

Musixmatch also noted that their integration with Spotify has paved way for music fans to reach out to a new level of experience. They also noted that other copycats have pirated their lyrics after they were launched on Spotify. But, they are thankful for being able to reach millions through their product.

However, they also noted that they believed they brought in millions of users and singers to the platform which resulted to Spotify generating millions of dollars in revenue.

“We are one of the most important companies in this digital ecosystem of music, with nearly 60 million users, with the world’s largest catalog of song lyrics, a community of 25 million contributors and agreements with over 8,000 music publishers worldwide.”

They did not directly specify that there was an issue with how Spotify is deciding to split the multi-million dollar revenue of the platform with them, but the mention of “business model” hints of a similar, if not exact, conflict between the two companies.

Now, Musixmatch has their own app that can be downloaded on iOS, Android, Desktop and even browser. They also has a “surprise coming your way,” which will only be available to those who will subscribe to their mailing list.

As for Spotify, the “Humming is fun” hiatus has already affected user experience. They did not announce when the feature would come back, but if they are trying to manually recreate Musixmatch, it would be a hard to complete hundreds of millions of lyrics for local and international songs.

For lyrics buffs out there, you can still enjoy the duo by listening to Spotify while browsing the lyrics in your browser. Or you can just switch providers or watch lyrics videos on YouTube.

[Photo via Spotify]