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Censored songs

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Censored songs

I just wonder why you have to get songs censored the way you do? You literally destroy many songs with that. Maybe cursing doesn't sound so nice, but if you don't like the song they curse on, WHY do you listen to it?

I, as myself, don't care about the cursing but like to listen to the songs meaning. If a rapper made a song with meaning, but had cursing as a way to express himself, you should look at the meaning not the cursing. Maybe you can't find the meaning but that is YOUR problem. Seriously, when a song you like, gets bugged up with suddenly silent moments that doesn't fit in at all... YOU should know what I mean....

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170 Replies

There is no censorship if you listen handsup!!! In handsup music very often you can hear Mother**bleep**ing hands up! and Hands up, mother**bleep**ers! Listen handsup, it's cool music. Spotify is not censoring any music, only labels do that. And hanssup labels not!!!

 

This is getting rediculous. The replacement of explicit songs with clean ones on playlists is getting more and more frequent for me, and is annoying as hell.

 

You really need to do something about this. Make something in the system better for distinguishing between edited and explicit versions, and stop blaming the labels for it. I work in the software industry, so I know darn well that there are plenty of things you can do to fix the problem.

Sam - why are all my playlists which have been fine since I first purchased spotify (as soon as it was available in the US) being changed to the censored versions.  These are playlists that are both streaming and downloaded.  I've changed nothing, however, all my playlists are slowly being migrated to the "clean" version.   

What do you suggest for mobile users?  I haven't figured out a user friendly way to make sure I didn't select an edited version of an album.

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the feedback. Just to emphasise, we don't censor anything. We simply add the music that's given to us.

With your playlists, songs swapping from explicit to clean can happen. So, if an explicit song becomes unavailable, we will then try and match it with another explicit version. If there isn't an explicit version available, we'll pick a clean one. Just so there's a version of the track there.
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Hi Sam - I appreciate you taking the time to get back to everyone. 

 

I know you're saying you don't censor songs, but something has changed.  I've had spotify since the beginning (US) and my songs being changed without my knowledge or consent is a VERY new thing that's happening here.  

 

Are there any plans to include a new control panel option such as "censor profanity in music when available" as a choice we can turn off (and receive the song the artist intended by default)?

 

I've loved and reccomended Spotify for as long as I've had it, but what's happening now has definitely affected my enthusiasm for Spotify.  

 

 

 

 

 

In the future, we can't really say. We're constantly changing things in the backend though, for the better, so keep your Spotify up-to-date.
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I have a **bleep**ING idea for you guys.

 

How about someone from Spotify actually listens to the songs which are posted on their system and tags them accordingly.  I don't care how they were submitted.  You guys should know what you are selling.

 

For instance, tonight, I went to Amy Winehouse, and created a playlist for "Back to Black" as it was the only version of the album that I saw.  I got the censored version of "Me & Mr Jones" even though other tracks on the album came up as "Explicit".  I then searched for the album "Back to Black" again and added it which had the correct songs.

 

Spotify is from the UK right?  Are you serious, someone doesn't even know some of the biggest stuff from the UK on their own library?  Ridiculous.

 

Whatever the problem is, your system sucks in this regard and needs to be fixed, or people are going to switch to another provider.  I love Spotify but this is a regular frustration and shoudn't be.

 

**bleep**IN' A.

I agree with all the sentiments being expressed in these posts. Why can't spotify curate the albums in a way so that users can clearly distinguish between the explicit and censored versions? This is a paid service and what you are telling us is that "the music is given to us in this way and therefore we will give it to you in the same way."

 

A good example of this is YG's new album My Krazy Life. There are 4 different versions of this album on spotify, 3 with 14 songs and 1 with 17 songs... yet none of them are uncensored. What is the point of having 3 of the same version? Spotify really needs to start organizing it's music collection before users switch to another service (google music, etc).

Was browsing the forums today just to try and find an explanation for the YG album mentioned above. FOUR censored versions of the same album.The irony is that it's an album where every other word is an expletive, so there is a lot of empty space in the songs...

It's about the money. As the media has made clear in the past year or so, artists don't make a lot of money having their songs available on Spotify. So a promising rapper, say, with a new album which is getting great reviews on the blogs and magazines won't release an uncensored version of their album on Spotify, because the rapper and his/her label want your $10, and neither, Spotify or the artist want to share that $10 with each other. 

That's funny. Media companies should be scrambling to please their consumers in this day and age.  The amount of competition at this point should be absolutely insane. 

I'm no expert but this album sounds pretty uncensored to me. Spotify will make all music the publishers upload available to us so, if something is missing, it's down to the publishers and you guys should email and post on their facebook pages etc.

 

 

I think it's less about what is on Spotify, and how one finds what is on Spotify.

Perhaps it wasn't considered an important distinction, but when trying to find songs on the mobile apps it gets kind of rough trying to find an unedited version of a song.

 

I'm having trouble finding songs from Donald Glover that aren't censored to high hell.

Do you know how weird that sounds?

Oh, I agree. I'm an old fart but I detest censorship. If something offends me I prefer not to listen to it rather than listen to a butchered version. I do think we should be able to decide which we prefer and, if you haven't done so, please support this idea.

I detest censorship as well but when listening in the car (with children) and work I'd love to just be able to click a non explicit lyrics button and not have to worry.

I've been listening to the Sunday Stoll playlist around the house with my wife and children and 3 songs so far have have the work f?!k in them which with two young children I don't particularly want.

This is my one big complaint with Spotify.

I honestly do not mind cursing, but however it is a sin to curse. So I do like the songs without curse words, especially Disturbed's song "Down with the Sickness". I love the song, but that explicit version is just bad. But of course like Three Days Grace's song "Riot" is another one, I love the song, but wish I could share it with my family without that F word being a problem. If you get what I mean by this.

 

-Ghostgate

 

P.S. Lol - 7 years later, I look back on this post and cringe at myself, haha! Oh, the fact of how it's nearly 7 years since the day I made this.

So, if words like "**bleep**" and "**bleep**" are censored and "body bags" and "glock 40" are not (in the same track) the track is ok for kids? I don't think so.. Only way to deal with "clean" tracks is to provide a button to make them invisible.. If this feature won't come then i'll have to go 😉

This is why I cancelled my spotify subscription. I am not paying for your "service" to butcher 60 versions of an album and give us NO uncensored content. WHO PAYS $10 for a CENSORED rap album? THE FUK IS WRONG WITH YOU IDIOTS!

 

 

 

 

 

UNCENSOR EVERYTHING OR LOSE MORE SUBSCRIPTIONS. SEVERAL MORE OF MY FRIENDS ARE CANCELLING BECAUSE OF YOUR GARBAGE CENSORSHIP.

It would be nice if there was an option that would only show editied versions of songs if that was the ONLY version available. 

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