Credit: Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google seems to be quietly moving YouTube Music lyrics behind a paywall for more users, turning a basic app feature into a Premium-only perk.
- Free users now get just five lyric views before the rest are blurred behind a subscription prompt.
- You can still see the opening lines, but full lyrics now require YouTube Music Premium or YouTube Premium.
Update, February 9, 2026 (05:00 PM ET): Google has responded to our inquiry about paywalling YouTube Music lyrics with the following statement:
“We are running an experiment with a small percentage of ad-supported users that may impact their ability to access the lyrics feature repeatedly. 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.”