Spotify Appears to be Building a Karaoke Feature
by Sandhya Mahesh
For years, Spotify has been selective on which songs can display lyrics. Many songs did not have lyrics available and many regions including large parts of Asia did not have access to this feature. Since then, many new new features have started to roll out.
Lyrics have been a long requested feature by users, and because of tensions with other lyrics-providing services including Genius and Musixmatch, it has been put off for years. In June of 2020, the platform released a new update that allowed for real-time lyrics of almost all songs.
Now, more exciting news is on its way. Renowned reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong, who uses her expertise in programming to dig around code of different platforms, has found a new but unreleased feature that may be in the works. The feature has similar real time lyrics to what we already know of, but there seems to be a toggle with a “more/ less vocals” button that hints at the idea of a karaoke feature.
Spotify is working on Karaoke Mode
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) September 7, 2020
the vocal level is adjustable pic.twitter.com/apeIlETAQs
This timing of this finding is interesting, as the streaming platform Twitch revealed via a blog post just a couple days prior that they would be closing their karaoke app called Twitch sings in early 2021.
This new feature, of course, is not confirmed yet. A Spotify spokesperson shared with NME magazine that they “have no further news to share at this time.” However, Jane’s past discoveries have often been correct, and it seems likely that this feature would be rolled out after the newest advancements in their lyrics feature.
References:
- “Twitch Sings Closes January 1.” Twitch Blog, blog.twitch.tv/en/2020/09/04/twitch-sings-closes-january-1/.
- Porter, Jon. “Spotify Brings Real-Time Lyrics to 26 Countries, Not Including the US.” The Verge, The Verge, 30 June 2020, www.theverge.com/2020/6/30/21307984/spotify-real-time-lyrics-26-markets-musixmatch-genius-apple-music-karaoke.
- @wongmjane. “Spotify is working on Karaoke Mode. the vocal level is adjustable” Twitter, Sep 7, 7:34 AM, https://twitter.com/wongmjane/status/1302948305610006529.