excluding religious music from my "made for you" area and "discovery" lists

[unlucio]

For some reason lately, I'm finding more and more religious (mostly christian themed) music in playlists in my "made for you" area.

While I do appreciate choir and "solemn sounding" music, and really appreciate it when it celebrates humanity, I'm not fond of religions at large.

What would be the best way for me to "signal" the underlying "spotify system" that I do like the sounds of those tunes but I'd rather do without religious themes in my ears?

Imho they should be flaggable and excludable just as "explicit lyrics" ones as they can result just as offensive.

Thanks for help

cheers 🙂

[LaloPech]

We really appreciate it. In the interest of full disclosure, we’d like to share with you the status of this request. After serious consideration, we’ve decided not to offer blocking/ hiding/ or blacklisting artists or tracks on Spotify at this time. Rest assured we’re working hard to improve suggested content, such as your Discover Weekly and Release Radar. Keep an eye on the idea “Add like or dislike button to personal discover weekly playlist” for more details around this.

[unlucio]

 Thank you Lalo for your answer.

I am indeed using that "dislike" feature for the song or artist.

But it feels a bit "broad and drastic" to me.

For instance of those songs I "disliked" I did like the music, I just didn't appreciate the lyrics, thus marking them feel a bit of a heavy choice and my fear is that "the system" would stop giving me that kind of music while I actually don't want those were the lyrics are some kind of prayer.

As I do agree is too much blacklisting artists would be too extreme: I, for instance, haven't used the "I don't like <rtist name>" feature in my discovery weakly, as I fear that would prevent me to possibly listen to other songs I might like from the same artist.

It's not about a song, an artist or a specific kind of music, it's about lyrics just as for the "explicit" ones, thus why I think the same thing you already have in place for explicit lyrics: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/All-Platforms-Explicit-Filter/idi-p/3869 would work fine.

[Sophvan]

I agree. Overtly religious music should be easy to tag and exclude. I suspect spotify is worried Christian extremists will see it as discrimination but I'll bet if you were putting overtly religious music from other faiths in their streams just because they like one 'sacred music' song they'd  be complaining too. How about just quietly is a user clicks 'unlike/block' on a 10+ songs that all have overt religious content, to just assume they don't like that content and stop suggesting it to them? Its just good customer service. And yes, I'm a paid subscriber.

[unlucio]

It'd be a start but tbh I fear it would tend more to eliminate the genre altogether rather than the theme. For instance, I would be sad if disliking an "ave maria" on the long run blacklists "the ode to joy".
Making a piece of software able to identify specific themes from the lyrics of a song is no easy feat. And understand if the dislike is a signal for which metadata can be even harder.

But that said: it's more concerning this post is more than 2years old and the problem is still there.
Also I never got an answer from LaloPech.

[spettengill1]

Maybe try interacting more with songs with the sounds you like that done have a religious theme (liking, adding to playlists) and hiding songs that you do not want to continue to hear. Do this by clicking on the ellipses for the song and selecting "hide song."

[Franna]

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Closed-Ideas/All-Platforms-Other-Opt-out-of-religious-music/idi-p/4...

[Sophvan]

I agree that explicitly Christian or heavy handed religious music should be marked as such, and you should be able to screen it the way you do with explicit lyrics. Surely, the providers mark it with something like Christian music, or sacred music as a genre when it's that overt? Something an algorythm could detect or just something you could check off that you never want? For example, because Iisten to Dolly Parton and she occasionally has music with religious themes, and also listen to country, spotify seems to have decided that I am a hard core Christian (I have another faith and I'm gay), and it's really annoying. I don't seek out christian music, and I don't enjoy it. I click dislike or hide whenever it comes up and I am given that option, but it gets pretty annoying when it's every second song. Again, I'm a paid subscriber and this is what I, a customer, would like to see. 

[user-removed]

I'd like to put this useful thread into a wider and more objective context. While a church leader myself, I absolutely agree with the OP and most of the commentators. When I want to listen to faith music, I play albums that are in my own spiritual and aesthetic comfort zone—I don't want to hear random playlists including stuff that other people might find truly uplifting. Even more than that, I don't want to hear music from other religious cultures, occult, obscene or anti-religious songs, etc).  And unlike some people, I have utter respect for people of different faiths, spiritualities and worldviews, and I don't expect Spotify or indeed society at large to give preferential treatment to music/beliefs/ideas that I'm comfortable with. Be who you are with my blessing.

But this applies equally to different styles of music. I occasionally want to listen to classical music, jazz, country, and all kinds of other things. And my biggest gripe with Spotify is that I have to ruthlessly exclude these from my albums and playlists because otherwise they randomly clog up and ruin the atmosphere of the Made For You playlists that are my main (and sometimes reluctant) reason for staying with Spotify at all.

I know Spotify is a wondrous creature, and I suspect that it depends for its financial sustainability on expanding people's listening habits. But sometimes the MFY playlists wander just too far out of my zone. And surely Spotify could extend its Hide/Don't Play functionality in such a way that we can keep albums and playlists in our Library that reflect all aspects of our listening habits, while marking certain genres/albums/playlists not to influence Spotify's recommendations.