Spotify could finally be about to roll out this much-loved Apple Music feature – but not for everyone

Two iPhones, one showing the Spotify logo and the other showing live lyric translations in the Spotify app
(Image credit: Future / brucemoy19)

  • Spotify could be preparing to launch its own lyric translation tool, as spotted by a user on Reddit
  • The company has been testing the feature for years, and will follow Apple Music if it goes ahead with the rollout
  • Subscribers have been asking for it for years, but some are concerned about the accuracy of the translations

Spotify and Apple Music are in continuous competition with one another as two of the best music streaming services. After Apple launched its AutoMix function Spotify came out with its own audio-mixing tool, and now the latter could be gearing up to emulate another handy Apple Music feature – lyric translations.

According to a user on Reddit (see below), Spotify could soon be rolling out its own lyric translation feature, following Apple Music’s free update that introduced translations back in September.

We’ve reached out to Spotify for comment, and we’ll update this story if and when we get a response.

Lyric Translations are rolling out in the US from r/truespotify

If Spotify does roll out the feature it's likely that users in the US will be the first to get access (the Reddit user above is US-based). Spotify tends to release new features to limited markets initially, even if it’s at the expense of subscribers' patience.

While this is a feature that's been very well received by Apple Music users, there’s a question over Spotify’s ability to produce accurate results. At the moment, Spotify uses the data company Musixmatch to power its song lyrics tool, and it's received plenty of criticism over the years for its blatantly wrong lyric readings, so the pressure is on for Spotify to deliver accurate results here.

This isn’t the first time that a lyric translations tool has cropped up on Spotify. It’s known that the company has been working on its own version of the feature for a while, going back as far as four years, when a Reddit user noticed a lyric translation button similar to the one above.

Spotify added a "Translate to English" button for non-English lyrics in some songs from r/languagelearning

Spotify later addressed the status of lyric translations on its Community forum, sharing the following back in 2023: "Lyrics translation is a feature that's still being tested in selected countries. At Spotify, we're always testing new improvements and features to give our users a better experience. That's why you may have something in the app that other users don't or vice versa, or have a feature to try temporarily."

Spotify hasn’t provided any further insight to the status of its lyric translation feature since then. However, if I were to venture a guess, it would make sense for Spotify to wait until 2026, and roll it out once all the Spotify Wrapped craziness is behind us – although as mentioned, it's likely that only select users will see it initially.


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Rowan Davies
Editorial Associate

Rowan is an Editorial Associate and Apprentice Writer for TechRadar. A recent addition to the news team, he is involved in generating stories for topics that spread across TechRadar's categories. His interests in audio tech and knowledge in entertainment culture help bring the latest updates in tech news to our readers. 

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