How To Get Your Song Lyrics On Spotify

The real-time lyrics feature has been launched by Spotify in 26 markets around the world. Listeners in participating countries can opt to view lyrics that scroll onscreen, in sync with the music. Any song uploaded via distribution services does not get its lyrics automatically on all the platforms. Artists have to manually do it, and a lot of them have no idea how to. Here’s how it works.

1. Make sure your music is on Spotify.

Let’s clear out the basics first. To distribute your music on Spotify, you need to use a music distribution service. These digital distributors send your tracks to all the major streaming providers, they’re your bridge to Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon Music and beyond. There are tonnes of music distribution services out there, like Distrokid, CD Baby, AWAL, Amuse and so on, who charge you a little fee to distribute your music to streaming services.

2. Choosing a service to put up your lyrics.

Two big names have been historically known to put your lyrics up on streaming platforms– Genius and Musixmatch. Both these companies are equally competent at putting your lyrics up on streaming platforms, however, only Musixmatch gives you the option of syncing them in time with your song.

Other than that, Genius won’t integrate directly with your music distributor, which results in Genius taking longer to get your lyrics up on streaming platforms. On the other hand, Musixmatch’s main feature is that it’s integrated with music distribution providers, which makes lyric delivery to Spotify and other streaming platforms faster.

We’ll be explaining to you how to use both these platforms.

3. Putting up your lyrics via Genius.

If you want to go with the trusty old, tried-and-tested service, we got you. Uploading your lyrics in Genius’ catalogue is a pretty straightforward process. Here’s how it works.

• You need to register an account with Genius.
• Create your album or single with the lyrics for each song.

• Once your lyrics are in Genius it will take several days for your lyrics to show up in Spotify.

4. Putting your lyrics up via Musixmatch

If Musixmatch is more up your alley with the faster publishing and the time-synced lyrics, here is how you go about the platform.

• Create an account with Musixmatch.
• Get verified as an artist by filling out a form (https://about.musixmatch.com/artists/verified-artist)

• Connect your streaming service.
• Play your song. Play it from iTunes, Spotify, Windows Media Player, it doesn’t matter.
• Click “Add lyrics” and type in your lyrics.

• Hit “Save”

After this, your lyrics should be published on all streaming platforms within a few hours.

5. Time-syncing your lyrics in Musixmatch.

We get it, the time-synced lyrics feature is just too cool. Here’s how you go about it.

• Download the Musixmatch app for mobile.
• Search for your song.
• Confirm that the lyrics appear. The lyrics wouldn’t be time-synced as of yet.

• Connect the app to a streaming platform, like Spotify.
• Click the “Play” button for the song.
• Click “Sync Lyrics”.

• Use the down-arrow button to scroll through the lyrical lines in time with the music.

• When you’re done, hit “End of lyrics”. And you’re set!

Not every country has this feature yet but every artist should still make sure to have all their lyrics entered into Musixmatch. This way, your music will be available in all the other markets that do have the feature up and running. For future releases, make sure to sign up to become a Verified Artist on Musixmatch and fill out the New Release Form to ensure your lyrics are available in time for your next release.

And voila! Now your lyrics will be visible each time a fan streams your song or adds it to their story via Instagram music. Very dapper.

We at GreaseRelease, have a bunch of curators on our network who are looking for new & exciting music to push on their massive playlists. If you make music and want to reach a wider audience, check out our submission platform and get a chance to reach millions of listeners! Submit your tracks now!