YouTube Music Limits Free Lyrics to Five Views

Google has begun enforcing a paywall for song lyrics in its YouTube Music app, limiting free users to just five views before restricting access. The change, which rolled out globally after months of testing, requires a Premium subscription for unlimited lyrics, part of broader efforts to encourage upgrades among the platform's hundreds of millions of users.

Free users of YouTube Music can now access lyrics for only five songs via the app's Now Playing screen. After reaching that limit, a banner appears stating "You have 0 views remaining. Unlock lyrics with Premium." The display then shows only the first few lines of lyrics, with the rest blurred and unscrollable. Premium subscribers, however, gain full, synchronized scrolling access without restrictions. The feature, originally introduced in 2020 as a free tool, had been in limited testing since at least September before the wider implementation.

YouTube Music Premium costs $10.99 per month in the United States and includes ad-free playback, offline downloads, background listening, and additional tools like AI-powered music insights. For $13.99 monthly, YouTube Premium extends those benefits to the broader YouTube platform,...