Announcements

Help Wizard

Step 1

NEXT STEP

[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
SteelSpectre
Casual Listener
2013-12-04 02:43 PM

To parents who don't want their children to hear the f-word: stop listening to sh*tty music. The topic of the song and the aggressiveness of its style are FAR more important than a few 'bad words'.

 

I would like an option to hide the [explicit] tag altogether. It clutters my screen.

0 Likes
Daniel
Community Legend
2013-12-05 10:19 AM

Whilst I agree with you that in general the song that have expletives in are of a genre I myself tend to avoid. I have subscribed playlists such as the "Top Tracks in the United Kingdom". This is a Spotify managed playlist of the most played and is similar to listening to the charts. It's nice to put this on as my wife prefers modern pop music and my daughter will happily listen to it... However there are tracks in the top which have expletives and on a radio a clean version would be played... however this is not available in Spotify.

 

Maybe this could actually work out for both of us. If the option was to be able to play explicit lyric tracks or to play the clean version were made available then that [explicit] tag could potentially be removed altogether as you have already made the decision to listen to explicit tracks or not.

0 Likes
Scriven_j
Roadie
2013-12-05 02:22 PM

This is a great idea and if you think so, you should also support this idea:-

 

http://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Ideas/Allow-users-to-alert-Spotify-to-EXPLICIT-lyrics/idc-p/...

 

There are a number of songs NOT tagged as explicit that should be and mobilising the community to tag them would be a helpful way of weeding these out (for those that WANT to!).

0 Likes
Rollo_
Roadie
2013-12-05 04:01 PM

First off, I'm 100% in favor of this idea/option.

 

But if you don't want explicit content, why are you even playing it? Why not remove it from your playlists? And while you're at it, remove it from your life entirely. In the Desktop forum, I suggested the option be extended to ANY content you'd like.

 

What about lyrics that objectify women or denigrates a minority? The so-called "song of the summer 2013" certainly falls under the former. [No, wait, it really doesn't, RIIIIIGGGHHHHHT]

0 Likes
nmythoughts
Visitor
2013-12-14 04:49 PM

Hello,

I have truly enjoyed the Spotiffy listening experience. I would Love to have the ability to have a setting built in the settings of the iPhone App, iPad App & Mac Desktop version that allows you to turn off Explicit Lyrics. I don't have a preference on whether this is done via a button or on/off selector or slider within the settings. I have children as well that enjoy music adding this filter enhances the enjoyment and listening experience of today's music and artists. I do hope you Spotify will consider the peoples requests & add this necessary feature to your great service. Thank you,

0 Likes
purplninja8701
Visitor
2013-12-15 08:27 AM
ADD AN EXPLICIT BUTTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!
0 Likes
o0ashw
Visitor
2013-12-17 11:35 AM

Is something about this option not as straightforward as we all envision? checkbox action: if label = explicit, skip...

 

0 Likes
ohheyslim
Regular
2013-12-18 12:53 AM

Coming from someone who works with kids, this would be HUGE. Their palates are not as refined as mine, but I would love to let them make their own terrible playlist without wondering if they are all going to giggle over one George Carlin's "Seven Words You Can't Say on TV"  (or radio). 

 

I'm pretty sure record companies release "explicit" and "radio" versions of their artists. If that is still the case there should be an easy fix (hopefully).

0 Likes
FJThomas
Visitor
2013-12-23 03:13 PM

 

We are coming up on a year since the site has left the "Under Consideration" comment; please update us on this. For a site this size with paying customers it should be a minor adjustment to block songs labeled as explicit.

0 Likes
vestaviascott
Regular
2013-12-25 07:16 PM

Having been a premium subscriber myself for several years now, I just signed my daughter up for a free spotify account.

 

However, now that I see that even though spotify asks for a date of birth at signup, it apparently does not filter out explicit songs from her account.

 

Knowing that, this "feature" is not an option. It should have been a mandatory function prior to launch. Especially for a company with ambitions as big as this.

 

Please just do it already.

0 Likes