[All Platforms][Other] Romanized Lyrics for Songs Not In Latin Alphabet

[amknana12]

Recently, Spotify (at least in my iOS app) has added a very helpful feature which is lyrics. It finally collaborated with Musixmatch (thanks God why haven't you done this sooner).

Problem is, I am an Indonesian listener who is familiar with Latin alphabet. I loved many Asian songs, which we know, are not written in language using those Latin alphabets, namely K-Pop, J-Pop, or you name it. Those songs' lyrics are still shown in their original alphabet (K-Pop in hangeul, J-Pop in kanji and hiragana, etc). Usually, foreign listeners are able to sing-a-long by looking at the romanization version.

Now I know that Musixmatch indeed does not have that romanization lyrics, but Genius does and I know Spotify has partnership too with Genius, I guess? So, why not give a choice for listeners to choose between Genius or Musixmatch?

TL;DR:

1. We want romanized lyrics to Asian songs or any songs not using Latin alphabet

2. Give options for Spotify listeners to choose which version to show

3. If Spotify can no longer show Genius' service, push Musixmatch so that they make romanized lyrics available.

Sincerely,

Global Spotify member.

[UPDATE]
A comment below notified me that Musixmatch has provided options for translations and indeed they are now shown in Spotity. I see this as a nice improvement! However, what we wanted is a romanized version of the original language so we can do sing-along 😞 Please make this happen! 

[EvyDemarée]

Hi, so...

The alphabet of some languages is different. Some languages have characters/symbols that non-native speakers do not understand. To name a few that come to my mind instantly: Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Hindi, Arabic, ... 

I, myself, am a frequent listener of other languages than my own mother tongue. Yes, I do listen to Korean mostly. I do understand Korean 50/50 and have less problem with this, but listening to other languages and not being able to even know the romanized version of the song to sing along to, is less fun. I think I speak for a lot of KPOP-fans when I say that having to look it up via Genius, is not that fun... 

To give two easy example:

1. ILLIT - Magnetic (a song which has exploded on TikTok): "super 이끌림" = super ikkeullim

2. Fuji Kaze - Shinunoga E-Wa (a song that has been very popular for some time): "あたしの最後はあなたがいい" = Watashi no saigo wa anate ga ii

And I know the romanized version is not always to be read exactly like that, but it would make it so much easier to sing along to our favourite songs. I've also learned to almost sing Shinunoga E-Wa fully because of the romanized version I looked up!

In the end, I think it would benefit Spotify and Spotify-listeners. There are already so many KPOP-fans, let alone people who like to learn languages or are interested in any other language. It would make it way easier for those languages to be romanized. I know some people who don't use Spotify just because YouTube (or any other streaming app) actually has the romanized version (ofc bc someone made a video of it, but it's on there!).

P.s.

This is of course different from languages like for instance: French (ç, é,...) and German (ß, ö,..). I am currently actively learning French and German and the minor things I did not understand in the music were the small special characters. But bc there are not that many in French nor in German, it was doable.

Aside from that: when you look up a title in the romanized version, you can't find it. Well, the chance is small you can find it. I have to basically do a whole detour to find it, or just leave it as it is and not find it.

Thank you in advance!

[Dianerys]

As an avid listener of K-pop this idea is good and we want to sing along to romanized lyrics since we can't read hangul. This will be very convenient for listners instead of going back and forth to other applications! 

[Nomee]

I love listening to Bollywood/Indian and Pakistani music but the lyrics are in either Hindi or Urdu. Even if like many of the population I understand either of the languages I can't read the lyrics. If they were romanized, it would be much better! South Asian people that grow up elsewhere (large population) can't read both languages or neither language but enjoy and can understand the songs. This would be helpful!!

[myx23]

Plan

Premium

Country

Device

(iPhone 13, Samsung S20, Windows Pc)

My Question or Issue

Why can't I translate lyrics. For example, I listen to a lot of Japanese music and its written in kanji and I would love to learn it through roman lettered lyrics, since I don't understand it yet. 

Would really appreciate it please 

[supersataandagi]

Songs are often listened to by people who don't speak the language it was sung in, but would still like to sing along. I think an ability to submit multiple lyrics to a song, and then the option to switch between them, would be very valuable. 

For example. a song sung in Russian would have lyrics in the Cyrillic alphabet for any Russian speakers, but you would be able to swap it out for a transliterated version if someone who can only read the latin alphabet would like to sing it.

Another example would be that a song sung in Japanese would have lyrics in native Japanese characters, but could be swapped out for a transliterated hepburn lyric set in latin alphabet.

[rushil1]

The audience of Hindi and Punjabi songs is used to read and write in the English alphabet (using phonetics). Only a small number of people can read Hindi, so it is always better to have lyrics in the English alphabet so we don't use other apps to read the lyrics. which is a bit frustrating. It will make Spotify feel complete!

[AlyssaAngelie]

Make this happen! 

[primablossom]

I am sure I am not the only one who listen to music in different languages and sometimes I want to sing along or learn the lyrics and if the song is in a language that has a different alphabet/symbols, then I have to open another app or website to look it up. There should be a romanization option on the lyrics/karaoke feature. Adding translation options would be cool too. 

[dab19]

I think it would be cool to include the translation of lyrical piece into a language of choice such as English or your native language from let's say Spanish, Italian or German (e.g. Operas or Choral music) in the lyrics options. Or if you are listening to Kpop or Jpop, having that translated in the lyrics. This would help with understanding what is being sung. Maybe have it as an option within Lyrics and with language of choice to translate to.

[huesoscar]

an option for transliterating song names and lyrics written in a different script, such as Arabic, Cyrillic, Hangeul, or any other Japanese alphabet. In addition to giving musicians from places with other alphabets a larger audience, this could assist individuals in finding certain songs whose titles are written in characters they do not have on their keyboards.