Report / Request to Spotify India — Display Lyrics in Native Script (Not Romanized)

[ethnicesha]

All Indian songs on Spotify show lyrics in Roman script (transliteration) instead of the native script provided by the official lyrics vendor. These Romanized lyrics are produced by an automatic translation/transliteration bot and are frequently inaccurate. I request that Spotify India prioritize and display the native-script lyrics (Devanagari, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Punjabi, etc.) as provided by the licensed lyrics provider, and offer Roman transliteration only as an optional toggle.

Problem description

1. Source selection issue (not UI modification): The lyrics provider, Musixmatch, auto-generates transliterated (Roman) versions of Indian-language lyrics for its own app using an automatic translation/transliteration system. Instead of using the original native-script lyrics that Musixmatch already provides, Spotify is currently fetching and displaying these auto-generated Romanized versions, which are less accurate.

2. Accuracy issues: Romanization/transliteration by bots is not 100% reliable — it often produces spelling errors, incorrect word boundaries, wrong diacritics, and misplaced punctuation. This changes meaning and makes the lyrics misleading.

3. Readability & user experience: Native-script lyrics are far easier to read and understand for most listeners of Indian languages. Romanized lyrics reduce clarity and can frustrate users who are literate in their language’s native script.

4. Cultural correctness: Displaying a song’s lyrics in its proper script respects the artist and the language; romanization can feel like erasure or a lower-quality experience.

Impact

• User frustration: Listeners who expect accurate lyrics see noisy or wrong text.

• Artist/label complaints: Many Artists and Lables often complain to Musixmatch that the Roman lyrics are not correct, they do not know that if the fault of Spotify.

• Accessibility: Non-native readers who rely on correct transliteration still need an accurate option; automated romanization often fails them.

• Trust: Repeated inaccuracies reduce trust in Spotify’s lyrics feature.

Requested actions (clear & practical)

1. Use native-script lyrics by default. Where the licensed lyrics provider supplies lyrics in the native script, display that text as Spotify’s primary lyric view.

2. Add an optional toggle for Romanization. If users want transliteration, provide it as a user-selectable option (e.g., “Show Romanized lyrics”) rather than the default. Allow users to switch per-song (as shown in 2'nd Screenshot)

Please update the lyrics display policy for Indian-language tracks so that the native-script lyrics supplied by the official provider are shown by default, and romanized/transliterated text is offered only as an optional toggle. This will greatly improve accuracy, accessibility, and user satisfaction.

Thank you for considering this request. I’m happy to help by providing examples/screenshots of the issue if the team needs them.

Kind regards,
[Esha Kumari] — Spotify user (India)

[Ivelina]

Hey @ethnicesha,

Welcome to the Community!

Thank you for the detailed explanation of the lyrics situation. We understand that it would mean a lot to you if you could select the native script of the lyrics to be displayed by default. We really appreciate your feedback on the matter and we're always looking for ways to improve, as well as make the app better for our users.

There are other people here that share your opinion and would like there to be an option to toggle Romanized lyrics on/off. Even though this is not the same Idea as to what you'd like to be implemented, you could still check it out and add your vote to show your support for the toggle option.

On another note, you could create a separate Idea which is more related to your specific request and you can share it with others. Here you'll find more info on how to submit an Idea in the forum.

Thank you once again and we're just a post away if there's anything else we can assist you with.

Take care 🙂

[0007ishav]

Hi,
As a Panjabi music listener and part of the community, it's frustrating to read romanized version of lyrics that is hardly match with the original Panjabi lyrics. Most of the cases it changes the meaning and non-panjabi listeners are not able to understand the real meaning behind the lyrics that it holds actually. Obviously, non-panjabi can't read original lyrics. In that case, Musixmatch provides both original lyrics and romanized version. We wish to see original lyrics on the Spotify alongside of the correct romanized version provided by the Musixmatch.

Please take this matter into consideration. We're looking forward to it.
Thank you.