Without announcing, Spotify has begun testing a new ‘karaoke mode’ that allows users to sing along to songs and then gives them a score based on their vocal skills.
Karaoke mode has not been officially announced by the company, but several users wrote on social media that they have seen and used the feature. It appears to build on the existing ‘Lyrics’ feature, which was released last year and allows Spotify users to track lyrics that scroll in real-time as songs are playing.
Users who already have access to the new karaoke feature claim that a ‘Sing’ button with a microphone icon appears in the top right corner of the lyrics panel. Pressing the button causes the original vocals to be muted, but the backing track to continue playing, so that users can show off their vocal skills.
Once the song is over, the user is given a percentage ‘accuracy score’, along with a motivational message such as ‘You’re on the road to becoming famous!’
It is being speculated that the company is using AI to match the user’s pitch with the song’s original score.
When asked for more information by MailOnline, a spokesperson for the company simply said: ‘At Spotify, we routinely conduct several tests to improve our user experience. Some of those end up paving the path for our broader user experience and others serve only as important learnings. ‘
‘We have no further news to share on future plans at this time.’
If you are part of the trial, you will see a button labeled ‘Sing’ in the top right corner of the lyrics tab.
Once you’ve hit the button, a different style of lyrics screen will pop up showing the words line-by-line – just like a karaoke machine.
