Add real-time lyrics to your songs on Spotify.
Spotify has launched a real-time lyrics feature in 26 markets around the world. Listeners in participating countries can opt to view lyrics that scroll onscreen in sync to the music. The whole thing is powered by Musixmatch, the music industry’s preferred provider of lyrics.
CD Baby has already partnered with the lyrics service to help you claim your Verified Artist profile on Musixmatch. Once you do, you can take control over your lyrics on platforms like Instagram Stories, Google, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Shazam, and Spotify.
Claim your Verified Artist profile on Musixmatch
IMPORTANT: In most English-speaking markets, the new lyrics feature on Spotify is… not… yet… available.
However, you should enter all your lyrics into Musixmatch right now so they’re available to Spotify listeners in Southeast Asia and Latin America today. As the feature is introduced in other markets, your lyrics will automatically become available.
Here’s how to get your lyrics synced to your tracks on Spotify
If you want real-time lyrics to be displayed when someone listens to your music on Spotify, you’re going to need Musixmatch, the world’s largest catalog of song lyrics. The service helps power not only Spotify’s new lyrics feature, but also real-time lyrics in Instagram Stories. Have you ever asked Alexa to identify a song based on just a few lyrics? Amazon Music is getting an assist from Musixmatch there too!
You can provide real-time lyrics to Spotify by following these steps:
- Get verified as an artist on Musixmatch (CD Baby will fast-track you for artist verification if you use that link)
- Add lyrics within Musixmatch and be sure to format all text according to their guidelines
- Download the Musixmatch app for mobile
- Search for your song
- Make sure the lyrics appear
- Connect the app to a streaming platform
- Click the “play” button for the song
- Click “sync lyrics”
- Use the down button to scroll through the lyrical lines in time with the music
This is how you teach Musixmatch to sync the words to your track. That information then gets delivered to Spotify, Instagram Stories, Amazon Music, and more.
To set realistic expectations, you should know that the process is a bit time-consuming, especially if you’ve released a lot of songs. The whole thing is worth doing though, no matter where you live.
Spotify’s new lyrics feature is not yet available in the USA
Spotify’s real-time lyrics feature was initially launched in:
- Argentina
- Brazil
- Colombia
- Chile
- Mexico
- Peru
- Bolivia
- Costa Rica
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- India
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Paraguay
- El Salvador
- Uruguay
- Vietnam
- Philippines
- Indonesia
- Malaysia
- Thailand
- Taiwan
- Singapore
- Hong Kong
As I said in the intro, if you live elsewhere you should still provide lyrics for listeners IN those markets as soon as possible. That will ensure your lyrics can also be made available in more countries once the feature is introduced to other markets.
When it comes to lyrics, Musixmatch is the crucial bridge between your creativity and listeners on Spotify, Instagram, and Amazon Music.
CD Baby helps you get fast-tracked for artist verification on Musixmatch!
Chris Robley is an acclaimed singer-songwriter and award-winning poet from Maine.
His Beatlesque indie-pop and milltown Americana songs have been praised by The Associated Press, No Depression, KCRW, The LA Times, Boston Globe, NPR, American Songwriter, and others.
His poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, Prairie Schooner, The Poetry Review, and more.
Robley has received a Maine Literary Award in Poetry, Boulevard’s Emerging Writers Prize for Poetry, and in 2016 was selected by former US-poet laureate Robert Pinsky as a finalist for the Dorset Prize.