YouTube Music has started placing song lyrics behind a paywall, requiring users to subscribe to YouTube Premium or YouTube Music Premium to view full lyrics.
The change is now rolling out worldwide, including to Filipino users. With the update, YouTube Music only allows five free lyric views. After reaching the limit, users can only see the first few lines of a song, while the rest of the lyrics are blurred and locked.
Once the limit is reached, a notice appears on the Now Playing screen showing how many lyric views are left, along with a prompt to subscribe to unlock full access.
To continue viewing lyrics without limits, users must subscribe to YouTube Music Premium or YouTube Premium. In the Philippines, YouTube Music Premium is priced at around ₱169 per month, while YouTube Premium costs about ₱239 per month. Both plans remove ads and allow background playback and offline downloads, but YouTube Premium also covers the main YouTube app.
Google has been testing this lyrics restriction for several months, and the wider rollout suggests it is now part of YouTube Music’s standard experience. While Google has not explained why lyrics were moved behind a paywall, the company continues to push more features into its paid plans.
Earlier this week, Google said it now has over 325 million paid subscriptions across its services, including YouTube Premium and Google One. In 2025, YouTube generated more than $60 billion from ads and subscriptions.
For Filipino users who often rely on lyrics, this update may change how they use YouTube Music, especially for casual listening.
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