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A Musixmatch not made in heaven: Spotify, lyrics provider part ways

By Stephanie Topacio Long June 2, 2016

spotify vs. pandora — prykhodov/123rf

Call off this weekend’s home karaoke party. Spotify and Musixmatch are ending their partnership, and as a result, the lyrics function was removed from the music streamer’s desktop app as of May 27, according a post by Musixmatch on Medium.

For now, users will only find the message “Humming is fun” when they try to pull up lyrics on Spotify, as reported by Billboard. It won’t be forever, though; the company promises improvements and updates at some point in the future. In the meantime, Musixmatch’s iOS and Android apps still work with Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming services for paying subscribers. The company also has a Chrome app that can be used with YouTube.

Apparently, business differences led to the removal of Musixmatch’s lyrics catalog from Spotify. “We can confirm our partnership with Musixmatch is ending. It was a great partnership and there is mutual respect between both companies as our business strategies move us each in different directions,” said a Spotify spokesperson in a statement.

While Musixmatch thanked Spotify in the Medium post, there appeared to be hints of discord as well. “We regret the end of this partnership, but we must keep to our product and our users above all else. We will not allow anybody to ignore our business model,” said the company.

The post seemed to suggest that continued partnership with Spotify would ultimately harm the future of Musixmatch. “We want to focus on what is right for us, to protect all of you, our users,” the post read after explaining the split. “We don’t want to run the risk of Musixmatch no longer existing.”

The partnership lasted several years. The companies originally partnered in 2011, and Spotify first approached Musixmatch about integrating the services in January 2015. Moving forward, Spotify will look for a new solution while Musixmatch continues to provide its experience to other third parties.

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Stephanie Topacio Long is a writer and editor whose writing interests range from business to books. She also contributes to…

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