Spotify woos karaoke users with new lyrics feature
Stockholm (AFP) - Fans of a bedroom sing-along can now look beyond karaoke systems as music streaming giant Spotify tries to attract their attention by integrating lyrics into its service.
The feature, launched by the startup on Thursday in a collaboration with lyrics website Musicxmatch, lets users click a button on Spotify's desktop PC service to have each line of the song appear across the screen as it is sung.
"We're excited to bring an update to one of our key platforms -- one that makes the experience smoother and introduces some great features and integrations," Spotify's product director Dave Price said in a statement.
Spotify -- which has over 15 million paying subscribers after launching in Sweden in 2008 -- typically charges $10 (8.89 euros) for a monthly subscription that allows ad-free access to its catalogue of millions of songs.
But the company has come under fire from artists like US pop star Taylor Swift and Radiohead's Thom Yorke for inadequate compensation.
Swift pulled her catalogue from the service last year in a much-publicised spat that prompted Spotify founder Daniel Ek to reply that $2 billion of the company's revenue had gone to the music industry.
The company remained coy about whether the new lyrics feature would also reach mobile or tablet devices but a spokeswoman told AFP it is "always looking at bringing new features to all of our platforms."
