Recently, Spotify’s free tier has become increasingly limited, with basic features like skipping songs or repeating them now restricted. Additionally, Spotify has begun hiding lyrics behind a paywall. As a Spotify user without the premium version, I started looking for an app that could display and translate lyrics while still allowing Spotify to play in the background.
I Felt the Need for a Lyrics App, All over Again
This search led me back to Musixmatch, which was the go-to lyric app in the past when we used to store tracks on our phones for offline listening. I’m glad I rediscovered it because it stands out from other lyric apps.
Unlike Spotify or YouTube Music, Musixmatch consistently displays lyrics. The app’s interface is intuitive, requiring no tutorial. The lyrics appear in a floating window that automatically pops up when you play a track on a music streaming service. Although it’s mainly compatible with Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music, it can also detect your local library if you have one.
At times, the Musixmatch app may experience glitches when used with multiple streaming services simultaneously, causing confusion in fetching lyrics. In such cases, simply clearing your recent apps and relaunching Musixmatch usually resolves the issue.
Interestingly, Spotify’s lyrics generation is powered by Musixmatch. The Musixmatch app is not limited to Spotify; it’s quite versatile. However, with YouTube Music, the app’s lyrics database was slightly limited and didn’t offer lyrics for all tracks.
Real-Time Lyric Translations for the Win
With a music taste that spans from Fujii Kaze’s “Shinunoga E-Wa” to the ultra-popular “Despacito,” I’ve always wanted an app that can translate these songs without being intrusive, and Musixmatch does just that. Down below you can see at how it works:
Most importantly, I needed an app to translate lyrics for me. This feature is available on Spotify as well, but if the lyrics don’t load most of the time and are hidden behind a paywall, it’s not very useful. Apple Music, on the other hand, doesn’t offer translations. Therefore, having a floating window that hovers over any of these apps is ultimately better.
Furthermore, Musixmatch allows you to choose from a variety of languages to translate the track into. You can also see the percentage of translation completion for each language. English is almost always at 100%. Popular tracks like “Shape of You” have most language translations at 100%, which is incredible! However, the completion percentage varies for other languages and tracks. And this comes out to be a great feature to have.
Additionally, Musixmatch lets you customize the floating window. You can change the window’s display mode and choose between Compact or Extended options, as well as change its color.
Moreover, if you’re feeling creative, you can create LyricsCards and share them with your friends. You can also search for a particular song’s lyrics in the app. Similar to Shazam, you can identify tracks in reels.
The best part? These features are also available in the free version. This leads me to mention…
Musixmatch’s Free Version Is Enough
I was genuinely impressed by the effectiveness of the free version of the app. It offered real-time lyrics and translations, albeit with ads displayed in the floating window panel at the bottom. However, these ads were never intrusive.
Despite this, I decided to upgrade to the premium version to see how it differed from the free version. Honestly, apart from slightly faster lyrics loading times, there isn’t much else. You can also save lyrics for offline use, if that’s something you’re interested in. But, that’s pretty much it.
Apart from the app’s existing features, there’s also a dedicated community working to provide and improve lyrics. You can join this community, contribute, and earn points to increase your presence within it.
For those in India, the app charges Rs. 714.29 for a full year. However, if you’re a first-time subscriber, you’ll receive a 50% discount, bringing the price down to just Rs. 357.19, which is an incredibly good deal. In the US, the subscription starts at $2.99 per month, billed annually at $36 (roughly Rs. 3,000).
Even if you stick to the free tier, you can still make the most out of Musixmatch, especially if you’re looking for the best lyrics app for Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube Music. It perfectly suits my need for real-time lyric translations. If your needs align with mine, there’s no other app like it, and I highly recommend joining the community!
