topic Re: Censorship of music in Content Questions

Censorship of music

vanoppens1988 — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:36:38 GMT

Why is there so much HipHop music censored?? It's annoying because I paid money for some songs so why are they censored? I find Spotify really good but I think it's stupid that people pay money for songs that are censored. It really is something you need to look at

Re: Censorship of music

Richard — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:31:05 GMT

Hey, welcome to the Community.

Spotify does not censor music in any way. We simply make the music available in whatever form it was given to us.

Albums are often released in two versions: the "explicit" and the "clean" version. Usually, both versions are available on Spotify. However, as both versions are seen as identical, they will be grouped when shown in the artist view page. Only one of these albums will be immediately visible. The other album can reached by clicking the button that displays duplicates, a small arrow to the far right-hand side next to the album title.

Was there a particular album you were having trouble with?

Re: Censorship of music

thesurg3on — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 18:09:58 GMT

What about on the iphone. i am realizing that albums i have already created playlists for, all of a sudden some of the songs played not have the curses removed. are you guys actively removing tracks and putting in the censored? I dont want ANY censored music!!!!

Re: Censorship of music

redtape — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 19:28:15 GMT

"The other album can reached by clicking the button that displays duplicates, a small arrow to the far right-hand side next to the album title."

Is it me, or does this just not exist on the mobile app?

Re: Censorship of music

MattSuda — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 17:51:43 GMT

As some have pointed out -- the grouped option with the down arrow is not available on the mobile apps.

The censored version is shown on the artist page by default in the mobile apps.

You have to do a deep search and look in the tracks sections for the uncensored duplicate.

Maybe Spotify can improve this.

Re: Censorship of music

user-removed — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:29:23 GMT

They definitely have to improve that. I'm a grown ass man. I don't need this Disney edit trash.

Re: Censorship of music

youngtr7 — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 18:42:04 GMT

There are certain songs on The Eminem Show album (explicit version) that have cencored lyrics. Any word on that?

Re: Censorship of music

potoo_sama — Sun, 04 Dec 2016 15:18:37 GMT

This feature in not on the app. =(

Re: Censorship of music

mst69 — Thu, 04 Jul 2024 21:50:20 GMT

why is the word 'drug' censored in Monster Magnet's 'Tractor'? I own the CD's. It's not censored there, only in Spotify.

Re: Censorship of music

rachaellanne — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 22:23:56 GMT

Yes spotify does. The entirety of SZA's S.O.S. album has had all of the explicit words muted in each song, when that was not the original uploaded version of the album on December 8, 2022. That's automatic censorship.

Re: Censorship of music

Y2Kev — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 14:08:54 GMT

I just made a post about this, but the issue in question is that a lot of albums are being shown on their clean versions instead of the default explicit versions on many artists pages.

The original explicit version of SOS is still there, it's just not shown by default like it should.

Re: Censorship of music

Nuny0urbusiness — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 00:24:46 GMT

Does Spotify plan to censor music and podcasts that call for the death of billionaires/politicians or censor calls for the end to the Palestinian genocide?

Re: Censorship of music

slloyd08gmailcom — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 01:06:17 GMT

"Rock and Roll **bleep**" has been censored, even though that song has that word reappropriated as a term for rebel in the context of the lyrics and approach. It is one of Patti Smith's signature songs, where she praises outsiders as "niggers", without racial context. On the album Easter, it leaves a gaping hole in the sequencing.