[All Platforms] Explicit Filter

[sekuether21]

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.

[jasonm16]

Bobby, point well taken about the family plan.  As Spotify is a UK company, your approach perhaps would be useful.

I'm passing this issue to a law firm in LA that specializes in Class Actions.  If anyone has a similar contact in NYC, I encourage them to do the same.  This could be a good class action litigation.  Those that purchased the "Family Plan" have clearly been defrauded.

Spotify's official response has been not to respond.  They have been on notice for some time.  The time is right.

[bobbycrook1]

Perfect thanks, shouldn't have to be that way but seems to be the only
course of action. As I said before, if it wasn't a family plan then it's
your choice to go with spotify or not, but if your selling a family plan,
then it should be a must ! And the fact everyone else can offer it
regardless annoys me.

[Scriven_j]

For those in the UK I should probably point out that I got nowhere with approaching the ASA myself.

Their response appended.

I would suggest people "like" and share the FB group though.

https://www.facebook.com/MakeSpotifyChildSafe/

This is a realistic way of raising awareness and when I shared this a number of friends and family also joined the group so this could grow quickly if given attention by those who are interested.

=====================================================

Your complaint about Spotify Ltd

Thank you for contacting the ASA. 

We can intervene if an advertisement seems likely to be in breach of the UK Code of Non-Broadcast Advertising, among other things, being likely to provoke serious or widespread offence, risking causing significant harm or being materially misleading. Whilst I appreciate your comments about the Spotify Family promotion, we don’t believe such a breach has occurred in this instance.

I understand you objected to the ad because it offered music for the “whole family”, which you believe to be misleading as Spotify have no way of filtering out explicit lyrics. We consider ads to be misleading if they encourage consumers to make transactional decisions that they otherwise would not have made. In addition, please note that we can’t comment on Spotify’s business decisions or operations, and can only focus on the ad in question.

In this instance, we note that Spotify does not allow customers under 13 years of age to have an account, which they have made clear in the terms and conditions (found here and here). In addition, we think the reference to “family” is likely to be interpreted as referring to older family members. Spotify’s age restriction is to prevent very young children from hearing songs with explicit lyrics; Spotify have created a number of “Kids” playlists for parents who want to play music to their children. Therefore, we  cannot conclude from viewing the ad that the use of the word “whole family” is misleading, and we do not propose any further action at this time.

Although this may not be the response you were hoping for, I would like to thank you for taking the time to raise your concerns with us.  If you would like more information about our work, please visit our website.

[Phil_The_Thrill]

I have this problem too.  I just made a few clean playlists that covered most occasions.

[Bmozisek]

If I have to make my own playlist, then why use Spotify. I can do that
just as easily in other music services. When I used Spotify, I really
enjoyed the automatic play list that would update. Except for the random
explicit song

[Gallahud]

As a newbie to Spotify I'm shocked that this isn't an option. I really don't want my daughter (3) asking me what dies **bleep** mean? Seriously she asked me this. So now no Spotify for us as she has plenty of time for explicit language when she hits the school yard! I paid for premium and very rarely use it given this. About to cancel my subscription as a result.  very disappointing. 

Whats even more disappointing is from looking at the forums this was first asked for on 2012.  4 years later Spotify still don't have an answer for its customers or consider important enough to find a solution. Very poor form Spotify. 

BTW you can't use explicit language when posting a comment yet it is ok for everyone to hear it through their service!!!!!

[HeebyJeeby]

Oi! Spotify! **bleep**ing do this already! It should be **bleep**ing easy, you already put a **bleep**ing [explicit] tag on each track that has **bleep**ing swears in it. I don't want to have to keep getting surprised with **bleep**ing f-bombs when I'm listening to playlists.

[HeebyJeeby]

This comment does not have "bleep" in it. I'm just saying **bleep**ity **bleep** **bleep**, **bleep** **bleep** **bleep**.

[Phil_The_Thrill]

For all you musically inexperienced people...

[888margo888]

Spotify: may your karma bite you.  Hopefully the executives, board members and higher echelon rulers receive the same treatment that they provide their customers in their daily business lives. May no one get back to you.  May no one hear what you say.  May every vendor, VC, banker, etc treat Spotify exeutives the way you treat your paying customers.  May you receive the nothing that you give us, your customers, in the way of response. In a fair world this would happen, so it probably will not happen; but one can hope.