Disable Explicit Songs?

[Jts]

Is it possible to tell spotify not to play any songs with explicit lyrics?  I like to play random playlists or spotify's top lists sometimes but don't like songs with explicit lyrics. 

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Jonathan

[randytylr]

I will be droping both my free and my families mobile accounts(3) and moving to Pandora or another provider.  The fact that the Spotify team refuses to add a simple filter, to stop explicit lyrics is dumbfounding.  Today trying to play a workout list with my daughter in the room and all of a sudden, Fu** this that comes on.  Its not about filtering someones art, it about the same freedom they have to create a song with every other word the Fbomb.  They prefer it, I dont, and should have teh same freedoms to elect whats in my playlist.

For the record, its a simple change.  Go inot the song database, and every song marked as Explicit (already labeled) create a new field with either a 1 or 0.  If I want to hera those, I say yes, flag goes to 1, and I get them.  If I say no, when I log in my profile is checked, my explicit field is a 0, so the system does not load them.

Im tired of constantly having to run and turn it off, get embarrased etc, because the team ius either to lazy, or just doesnt care enough about their customers to address it...

[tonkthetankrox]

Isn't not allowing people to choose what they don't want to experience also a form of control? Isn't that also what dictators do? True freedom would allow inividuals expression of whatever they want AND a the choice to experience only what they want to experience. Stop limiting my freedoms by waving the flag of freedom for only those you deem worthy of it. I say freedom for all.

[spookygroup]

I agree. This is not about censoring artists or restricting the Spotify community in general. This is a feature for the consumer which allows them to choose what songs they receive.

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@benalabaster wrote:
Nobody is suggesting that Spotify start censoring art - what we're asking is if we can have a switch that says "I'm in an environment that it would be considered unprofessional for me to be listening to explicit songs" and it auto-censor what we don't want to be listening to at that time. Likewise those of us that have kids want the option to be able to have parental control and state "I don't want my young children listening the versions of songs that have explicit lyrics." We're not by any means suggesting that anyone is enforcing censorship on Spotify users.

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[jasonbellz]

I am new to spotify and I really like some of the options over Pandora and IHeart Radio... however, without the ability to restrict explicit content - I will have to drop the service.

Sorry Spotify, you have a great service except you missing the most important component - parental controls.  Your current promotion to get the "Family Plan" is a bit misleading as there is nothing in this service that promotes family use.

[rednblu]

Why don't you just put together a big playlist, named something like "NeverExplicit", that you scan by PgDn, and delete all of the "explicit" songs and other songs that you don't want to hear ever again?

Then you just "Shuffle play" that big NeverExplicit playlist?

And you could make that big NeverExplicit playlist "Public" for all the other responsible parents to copy and edit and "Shuffle" by their own tastes.

I have lots of different ideas for putting together big playlists that you can scan and free from the evil of all of the "Explicit" songs-- if you are interested.

For example, I share with you >> a link to a big playlist that I Shuffle play for my Religious friends whenever they visit. <<  They are musicians-- so that playlist has all kinds of music-- Blues, Rock, R&B, Classics, Opera, Modern-- even some rap by Will Smith-- But we have removed every Explicit song when it came up-- so most of the Explicit songs are LongGone-- You can finish the job of exorcising the remaining evil Explicit songs from the NeverExplicit playlist.

Just copy my draft of "NeverExplicit" to your own playlist that you ReName by the following-- as a place to start.

* To display the draft "Never Explicit" playlist, I suggest you copy the following link

https://open.spotify.com/user/rednblu/playlist/26tTob4M2I8kSvH4cElIb3

into the Ctrl-L, Search box in the upper left of your DeskTop browser, such as 1.0.19-- then Enter to list the draft playlist NeverExplicit.

* Ctrl-A on some SongTitle in the Song column when the playlist "NeverExplicit" displays-- Then RightClick, "Add to Playlist", "New playlist" at the top of the list, then Rename the NewPlaylist that appears at the top of your Playlists in the left column.

* Click the Green Play button-- then make sure your Shuffle play is turned on-- Ctrl-S if Shuffle is not already on-- Check that small "Shuffle" icon in the lower right of the screen.

* Delete any track that you don't want your child to learn to like.

Will that work, @jasonbellz, @spookygroup, @tonkthetankrox, @randytylr, . . . .?

Does anybody have other helpful ideas here?

I would hate for you to miss the spectacular Library of Children's Songs and Classical music in which the Spotify vast catalog excels above all other services.

[benalabaster]

Before reading this thread, I would have considered this a suitable option, however, it's my understanding (and I'm quite willing to accept that my understanding may be incorrect) that Spotify periodically swaps songs in and out for other versions as licensing permits/requires. Consequently it's quite possible to make this play list that's called "Never Explicit" only to find that one or more songs has been swapped at the most embarassing or politically incorrect moment for one that has explicit lyrics. So, my understanding withstanding, no, this would not be a suitable option. Also, I have no interest in manually curating lists, if I wanted to do this, then I would have stuck with iTunes. My entire interest in Spotify was that I specifically wouldn't have to maintain my own music library or playlists.

All Spotify requires is a flag on each version of each song in their library that shows "This version of this song contains suggestive and/or explicit lyrics" and a PIN enabled switch in the App that allows us to toggle between allowing explicit lyrics or not.  Given that most media formats already allow for songs to have the flag, one would assume that most (if not all) of Spotify's library already has this, which means that all the app needs to do is check the flag on the song before skipping it or playing it. This way, when I'm wearing my headphones and am totally okay with listening to explicit lyrics, I can; and when I'm in an environment where there is a younger or more professional audience, I can toggle to prevent those songs from playing. This is a solved problem for every other media outlet, it's not like Spotify are the gods of Music - even YouTube has this... and that's like the Wild Wild West of video uploads.

[rednblu]

Have you found the YouTube filter reliable? -- for example.

I haven't.

I would not trust the YouTube filter-- Nor any other media outlet filter.

But every user has a personal experience-- and personal statistics.

I would vote against Spotify investing in any kind of "Filter" like an Explicit filter-- because it is not feasible to make that filter any more reliable that the YouTube filter-- for example.

From my experience, I have never found Spotify to make the kind of "switch" that you hypothesize in any playlist that I have played. But I agree that such a "switch" could be possible.

(laughing)  I can even find for you sometime a link to a Beethoven Piano Concerto performance that YouTube or some other media outlet has classified as "Explicit".

So if I found "Explicit" material switched for that Beethoven Piano Concerto performance, I probably would delete it from my library no matter whether it was labeled as Explicit or Not-- would that make sense?

[benalabaster]

While I would not necessarily trust it 100%, I do monitor (loosely) what the kids are playing and if I hear anything with questionable lyrics, I will flag it as such. The way the community polices YouTube though, it is actually pretty good. Not foolproof by any means, but better than relying on a corporate assigned moderator.

[TheTimeSInk]

New Music Friday is up.

I'm at work.

Several songs clearly show an "explicit" flag.

-eh, that's not going to fly in this environment.

Cool:

right click on each bit of flagged music and select "do not play".

or "sort by" and queue from below that point.

or click on "do not play explicit".

 I get: "none of the above"?

So I have a window open to that computer to allow me to hit <next> when I catch there may be something that shouldn't make it into the hallway? ...or a word hits as someone walks by because I missed my cue? Nope, not working all that well.

Hey, the playlists with over "several" explicits shouldn't be played here; but the new music, viral, and all the other "what's out there" playlists should be something I can enjoy at work or at home (outside, neighbor's kids playing) as I look for songs to put in my own playlist for playing in appropriate locations or with headphones.

I mean, come on! The songs are already flagged!

Spotify, what am I missing?

[AustinTanguay]

Hello, 

Here is a link telling you more about explicit songs: 

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Explicit-button/idi-p/3869 

Best of luck, 

Austin

[AustinTanguay]

Hello, 

My deepest apologies for sending an old link.

Best Regards, 

Austin

[Gs22]

I echo every sentiment in your post. If they have the ability to mark explicit songs they should have the knowledge to add a block button. Maybe some negative public relations is what it takes for them to enable the block feature.

[rednblu]

I request that everybody on this thread vote by giving Kudos to the "Explicit button" idea described >> at this link. <<

At the same time, you might add your arguments for why you want an "Explicit button" that would skip "explicit songs" when you are listening to an album or playlist.  How about also skipping "explicit songs" from the Spotify "Radio"?

If @AustinTanguay will correct the link above so that clicking the link takes the user to the Kudos page, I will replace this whole posting with my moral diatribe against anything like an "Explicit button".  (laughing)

I laugh-- but in my universe, I want everyone to express their ideas and explain themselves to me-- because that is how I begin to understand what is *wrong with civilization and what *should be done to fix it.

[hpeach1310]

I will leave rhe Spotify service unless this can be done. Spotify, please listen to your users

[tonkthetankrox]

@rednblu No one wants to sensor your music for everyone at all times. Your original work would still be out there. We simply want to give individuals the choice of what they listen to without forcing then to extremes like wasting hours on a new playlist. It's my hearing, it's my choice. I said earlier, all that work is what computers are for. And your suggestion that I spend hours culling my music library is not feasable. I have a life that does not revolve around music. I do have a few big playlists marked "no f bombs" but I like new music. I like to listen to different genres at different times. So if there are playlists with new music I want to check out, I have to do hours of research into songs. Also spotify sometimes switches out song versions with no warning. One day my playlist may be nonexplicit and explicit the next. I honestly don't see why you are opposed to this. Please explain it to me and keep in mind that my freedom of religion should not be violated by your freedom of artistic expression. Fyi, in my own personal belief I feel that surrounding myself with unclean words and narratives removes the influence of God from me and so my free practice of religion involves not listening to some songs. It's my religion and it's protected by the Constitution. Tell me how optional censorship is violating your free expression when the censored material is readily available for those who don't opt out. It's not like we're asking it to be removed, or defaulted to censorship. We're just asking for the option. And how is me selecting songs I don't want to hear different from a computer selecting and removing THE EXACT SAME SONGS? Tell me how a button to remove songs, and me removing them myself are ethically different? Is it just the effort that makes it okay? Please enlighten me with more than "I would pissed if someone censored my work you dictators!" Because your alternative to allowing easy censorship, which you're not okay with, is hard censorship, which you apparently support.

[tonkthetankrox]

I posted a comment months ago stating that if Spotify did not add an optional content filter that I would cancel my subscription and uninstall their program.  I invite anyone else to join in my new years resolution to boycot Spotify until such action has been taken.  And please, let them know the reason you are leaving

[Ilovetoscore]

I don't necessarily need a button to disable explicit songs, I just wish they made it clearer and easier to find the clean songs. I moved here from Rdio, and it was easy to find clean versions.

[innocuous_name]

I'd never even noticed there was no explicit filter until this Christmas, when I gave my daughter (7) a Kids Kindle Fire.  One of the first things I did was install Spotify so she could listen to the playlists we've cultivated together on my account.  Great! I think.  I should probably find that setting to disable explicit content, I think!   And now here I am.... WTF spotify.  I'm all about my daughter exploring new music.  I'm not about her going to school singing her new favorite song, "B****, F*** that sh**"......

[emileefollett]

I'm glad you have all expressed my same concern. I have been debating whether to move from Pandora to Spotify. I even got a trial premium membership to give it a fair shake. But the first song I opened up on a "focus promoting" radio station had the F word in the first two lines! I listen to streaming music most frequently at work, so the lack fo this feature is unacceptible to me. Sorry, Spotify. You lose.

[pixelagent]

Ironic that they have a family offer. Who would want that option if you can't control what your kids listen to. I think their is something weird about this company.  A simple preference to remove explict content is fundamental to a paid service. Who's pulling your  purse strings spotify? Some perverted pedo?  Get real and sort it out.