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[All Platforms] Explicit Filter

Submitted by on ‎2012-02-18 04:32 PM
Status: implemented

Add a button that controls whether Explicit songs are played or not.  When it is off and you're listening to an album or playlist, the explicit songs are skipped. That way you can still listen to your favorite album or playlist when more impressionable members of the family (kids / parents) are around.

Updated on 2018-12-06

Hey folks!

It's great to hear music as the artist intended it to be heard, this means Spotify can sometimes include explicit content.
 
We recommend looking out for the EXPLICIT tag on any releases (E on the web player).
Note: Our explicit content tags are applied based on information we receive from rights-holders. This means we can’t guarantee all explicit content is marked as such. 

It's also now possible to use the Explicit content filter on mobile and tablet devices (more devices coming soon!). Right now, the setting is only for the individual account and device. If you do apply the setting on your phone, it doesn't filter explicit content for the same account on the desktop app. It also doesn’t apply if you use Spotify Connect to play to another device. For more information on this, check out this support article.

We'll keep you up-to-date if there's anything else to share!

Thanks
Comments
CSmooth
Newbie
2017-06-10 06:02 PM

Hey guys any updates on this or is this feature permanently resolved "won't fix"?  It's a tricky problem but, especially in communities where a lot of the vibrant music is fairly profane (e.g. 'Murica), I would love a toggle like this which would allow me to better share music I enjoy and come across and not llimit every cookout or gathering with more than two generations to 'the Oldies', much as I love MJ, Earth Wind & Fire, and occasional Fleetwood Mac (always go 2-3 solid soulful old bangers to one old white banger :).

 

Humor aside, I also think there's a sizeable market opportunity in more convenient clean tunes.  I first played some Drake at home while my folks siblings and niece were around because I found a mash up on SoundCloud with new Drake hits (think 'Gyalchester') with Sade tunes overlaced.  When teaching CS to some middle schoolers recently I ended up digging for mixes in a similar fashion to find tunes suitable that I enjoyed but renditions without all sorts of problematic language.  Content & messages are easy to discuss, but explicit language, though ever more accepted in society and mainstream media, is harder to explain away.

 

Please take a look at this again, or let the people know why you may have explicitly (see what I did there?) ruled out this setting! I don't know what relating every new song that comes out to a 'clean' or 'edited' or 'amended' cousin does to your schema, especially for older content where the clean renditions were different recordings with slightly different verses & intonation (think old 2pac or Limp Bizkit). The Interscope/Aftermath/Shady/G-Unit catalogue was famous for having entire songs only appear on 'dirty' or 'explicit' renditions of the songs ('Heat', 'Kids'...).  If you have any questions or want input mapping out the advantage/opportunity of adding the 'clean toggle', vs. the cost/how of relating clean and dirty 'cousins' of content in your datastores, I'd be happy to help however plausible.  Should be a fun investigation!

 

Take care and get us the clean versions!

0 Likes
sfairbourne
Visitor
2017-06-12 08:15 AM

Amazing to me that Spotify has not implemented this seemingly simple toggle. I have to leave now, I'm afraid, after many years of Spotify satisfaction, I need to limit what my pre-teens are exposed to. You had your chance. 

 

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stiven1971
Visitor
2017-06-12 11:05 AM

Can I +1 this feature request.

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aganezzer
Casual Listener
2017-06-12 05:28 PM

No Parental Controls available on Spotify so Family subscription will be able to access fully explicit content and album covers whether you like it or not.

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Cb411
Visitor
2017-06-12 10:39 PM

I am seriously considering moving to apple music because Spotify has no way of filtering explicit lyrics.  I have a 10 and 12 year old that like to listen to music as much as I do.  Unfortunately most pop music now is riddled with explicit lyrics which means I can't even listen to pop music channels on Spotify when my kids are around and I am not willing to let my kids use the service at all.  A real shame.

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colejm
Visitor
2017-06-12 10:59 PM

Voting with my wallet - dropping my family plan specifically because of the lack of this feature.  Happy to give my money to a company that actually listens to its customers.  I can't swallow the fact that this has been requested since 2012 but still hasn't been implemented.

0 Likes
rtbonini
Newbie
2017-06-13 06:05 AM

Premium subscription cancelled as well:

https://twitter.com/rsbonini/status/874477531147235328

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DayDreamer8251
Visitor
2017-06-13 07:19 PM

I would love to subscribe to Spotify Premium  family plan so my family can be on one service with one bill, but since there is no parental or explicit lyrics options I have to either make due with the free version or subscribe to one of the other music apps that has that option. Is there a timeline as to when features like this might happen?

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rmgloudemans
Visitor
2017-06-13 08:33 PM

I would love this to be an added feature.  We have many ages of listeners at our house!

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nchammer-2007
Newbie
2017-06-13 11:27 PM

Agggh, why is this taking so long to implement?

 

Because of this one issue, I'm on the verge of switching to play music which seems to have a much lower proportion of songs with explicit lyrics and has the option to block them from radio.

 

It's no fun having to keep on the ball with the finger ready for the next track button when the kids are in the car, or having to fob them off when asking "What does 'fux' mean?" when they can see the display.

0 Likes