WEBVTT

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YouTube music is putting lyrics behind a paywall.

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Not premium features, not high quality audio

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lyrics. The words to the song. And if you want

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to know what enchidification looks like in real

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time, this is it. Today on the Tyler Woodward

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Project, I'm... I'm going to break down exactly

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how Google managed to take something that was

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already there, make it worse on purpose, and

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then sell the old version back to you as a premium

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add -on. And we're also going to talk about the

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people this hurts the most because this isn't

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about being annoyed. It's about access. I'm Tyler

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Woodward and I'm a broadcast network engineer

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by trade and I spend most of my time thinking

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about infrastructure, platforms, and the ways

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companies squeeze us when they think we're not

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paying enough attention. This is exactly one

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of those moments right here, right now. Here's

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what's happening. YouTube music is limiting how

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many times free users can view full lyrics each

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month. After you hit that cap, which some reports

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say is around five lyrics views or so, the rest

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of the words get blurred behind a prompt that

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says unlock lyrics with premium. That's the feature.

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That's the product choice. And I want to walk

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you through why this pisses me off so much and

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why, well, it should probably piss a lot more

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people off. Let me paint the picture. You're

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using YouTube music for free You click on a song

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and you tap over the lyrics you see the words

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you're following along and then maybe halfway

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through the Second or third song you hit a counter

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that says you have three views remaining then

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two then one then nothing just a blur in a upsell.

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That is a manufactured problem. Google didn't

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add lyrics to YouTube music because they love

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access or transparency. They added lyrics because

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every other music platform has them. And when

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a free user can see the words, they feel like

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they're getting something real, you know? They

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feel like the app is actually useful. Now Google's

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reversing that calculation. They're saying this

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thing that already worked, this thing you've

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already been using for all this time, we're going

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to break it on purpose to make you pay for it.

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This is the exact playbook And it's so textbook,

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it's almost funny. You have a product that works,

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you make it worse, you make the old version available

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again, but now it costs money. And you're banking

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on the fact that your users are trapped enough

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that they'll pay rather than switch to a competitor.

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Now yeah, I know What someone's gonna say? but

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Tyler lyrics involve licensing Lyric find has

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to be paid this cost money and Sure, yeah, I

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don't think Google is running the lyrics feature

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on hopes and prayers, but you know, here's the

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thing if YouTube music actually needed to monetize

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lyrics to stay profitable. There are ways to

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do that that don't involve making a basic comprehension

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feature require a subscription. You could charge

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for, I don't know, karaoke style. Apple does

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that, you know, sync to... to lyrics that bounce

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along with the music or something. I don't know.

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You could charge for offline lyrics packs. You

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could charge for translations into other languages.

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You could charge for lyrics history or sharing

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or annotations. You know, there's other options,

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but they didn't pick any of those. They picked

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the thing that is The most basic. They picked

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the words themselves because the goal isn't to

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fund the service, no, the goal is to convert

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free users and that's the money grab. They want

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you to become a subscriber. I get it. But also

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it's like, you know, here's, you know, Here's

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where this gets ugly and I mean genuinely ugly

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Not just customer services annoying kind of ugly

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like your cable company. No harmful ugly for

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deaf and hard -of -hearing listeners Lyrics are

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not a nice to have Lyrics are how they access

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the song. They're not quote -unquote extra content

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They are the content For a deaf person, for someone

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who's hard of hearing, lyrics are like captions

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on a movie. They're like subtitles, closed captioning.

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They're the access ramp for those folks. There's

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been a conversation building in the accessibility

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community, and people have been saying this explicitly.

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They've Posted in Spotify forums. They've posted

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on reddit. They've been trying to get companies

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to understand this problem when you pay wall

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the lyrics you're not selling a feature your

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Rationing access you're making a disability accommodation

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into a premium tier for money. I Want to read

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you something that was said in a Spotify community

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thread someone talked about a deaf child in their

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life who loved music who used lyrics to understand

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and participate and feel part of the culture

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and When that feature got locked the music app

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became functionally unusable for her That's not

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hyperbole. That's not entitlement. That's what

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happens when you build a feature as Access and

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then decide it's a revenue lever YouTube music

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is doing the exact same thing they're saying

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if you want to understand the song if you want

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to read the words if you want to participate

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in music the way hearing listeners do that's

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going to cost you that's going to be conditional

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on your ability to pay up and that's not inclusion

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that's just paywalling inclusion and calling

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it Innovation. So what do we do? So what do we

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actually ask here? What's the next move? First,

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plain text lyrics need to stay free for everyone.

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That's the baseline. That's not negotiable. lyrics

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are comprehension they're the words leave them

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alone if YouTube music genuinely wants to monetize

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then monetize the stuff that's actually premium

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monetize the bells and whistles monetize the

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synced karaoke style lyrics that I don't know,

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bounce with the music, monetize offline lyrics,

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monetize lyric translations, monetize sharing

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lyric screenshots with friends. There's an entire

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ecosystem of extras you could charge for without

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rationing access to the words themselves. The

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principle is simple. Don't monetize the ramp,

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monetize the elevator, don't charge for baseline

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access, charge for the enhancements, Google.

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And here's the thing, if you're listening to

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this and you're a YouTube music user and this

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hits you, or if you know someone in the deaf

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or hard of hearing community who uses the app,

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the move here is to submit feedback in app. And

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when you submit it, don't frame it as I want

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free stuff. Frame it as this is an accessibility

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feature and you're restricting access to us Use

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the captions analogy make it clear that this

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isn't about entitlement It's not a It's not about

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if you're willing to pay if you've got the money

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to get to that Level as you're hearing friends.

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It's it's about not rationing inclusion Because

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the more people who point out this You know how

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best to say the more people who point out that

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this collides with accessibility The harder it

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is for Google to ignore it So that's it really

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in a nutshell YouTube music is blurring the words

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and selling the up the unblur You know if you

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will they're taking something that already existed

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Making it worse on purpose and selling relief

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as a premium option. And they picked the feature

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that overlaps with disability access, which means

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this isn't just annoying, it's straight up harmful.

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If you've ever wanted to see what insidification

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looks like on one screen, it's YouTube Music's

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little blur feature here. Leave leave app ratings

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reviews Give them the lowest star count and tell

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them exactly why And if you found this useful

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if it I'd really appreciate it if you If you

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would subscribe to the show on your favorite

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podcast platform share it with someone who needs

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to hear it. I Have lyrics well not lyrics, but

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I have I have the transcription It's on there

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on Apple podcast Spotify and yes YouTube You

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can also reach me over at Tyler woodward .me

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Follow me on threads of or blue sky at Tyler

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woodward .me and hit me up on matrix matrix that

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Tyler woodward .me Thanks for listening guys.

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I'll catch you next week