MusixMatch, which provides lyrics to Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Meta, Google, and more, now requires artists and fans who want to add new songs to first upload a selfie with a valid government-issued photo ID.
You can also become paid Pro subscribers, but some independent artists and fans curating lyrics for Musixmatch without compensation see the shift as both insulting and not worth risking identity theft.
“I will not be sending them my ID to have this little unpaid hobby,” wrote one former lyric curator on Reddit. “Database leaks are in the news regularly, and those are just the ones that get reported. It’s not worth the risk to me.”
“Not happening. It’s been fun, I’m out,” wrote another. “Back to (lyric curator) Genius I go.”
“Not even Google has my ID,” said a third.
This message was sent to creators last month.
We’ve contacted Musixmatch for comment and will post updates here.
Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.
