[All Platforms] Parental Controls

[supercosmic]

I love this service. My wife and I are both premium subscribers. I really hate being tied down to an archaic service like iTunes, but for my kids, I really have no choice. I would happily pay for more premium subscriptions for my kids to have their own Spotify accounts if there was a way I could make sure explicit songs are blocked. I dont care if this is a free feature, I am happy to pay for it. Until it exists or my kids get a lot older, its money you are leaving on the table Spotify. I have to think I am not the only parent who would be happy to pay for this. Seems easy enough to implement, so why not make it another reason to go premium?

[user-removed]

Hi, I'm a Dad with two young girls who love Spotify but their use is now being limited due to a number of mishaps & inappropriate content being played. This is an issue for a concerned parent.

Seriously Spotify looking at the thread of comments back to 2012 and no sign of a parental control feature being introduced is a poor reflection of customer support. For a service that continues to grow, is this something that is just going to be ignored or is there something going to be introduced?

🤘🏻Ken🤘🏻

[user-removed]

I was on the verge of switching from Napster/Rhapsody.  Already created the account and provided cc info.  Earlier I even checked my playlists to make sure they would transfer (via Soundiiz).  But now I discover my son won't be allowed to use the service for more than a year (unless we lie about his age, which I am not willing to do).  I get that the concern is explicit lyrics and album covers.  So why not provide a kid's service like most of the other services do (Napster/Rhapsody does).  It looks like this thread was started three years ago.  EDIT: Whoops, it was nearly four years ago.

[jedgson1]

I have just been 'speaking' with a spotify agent on live chat:

Original question:

Is spotify likely to implement some parental controls anytime soon? There is a thread in the community that goes all the way back to 2012 - even a comment under it that states "We think this is a good idea and want to hear more of your thoughts/ feedback around it". This was in 2014. This seems to be a feature request that a lot of people are asking for but there seems to very little development from Spotify in this area. What is the point of a family plan if you can't allow you family to us it?

Chat transcript:

Jennifer D (11/10/2016, 2:16:57 PM): Hey there! Thanks for contacting Spotify Support!
Jennifer D (11/10/2016, 2:17:31 PM): Hi! I hope you're doing well. Thanks for your patience as I read over your question for a moment...
Jennifer D (11/10/2016, 2:19:52 PM): Currently, parental controls is a feature that's not yet available at Spotify.
Me (11/10/2016, 2:20:48 PM): I know. I am asking if it will be and if so is it something that is likely to be implemented soon? ie. is it actively being developed given it is something that a lot of people want
Jennifer D (11/10/2016, 2:20:59 PM): As we don't censor music; we make it available in whatever form it’s given to us by the artists or labels, we recommend users that are 13 years old to use the app with parental guidance.
Me (11/10/2016, 2:22:09 PM): This feature would not be 'censorship', it would be a way for parents to filter songs based on an 'explicit' flag
Jennifer D (11/10/2016, 2:22:12 PM): At this point, we can’t say now if or when any specific release will be out, but as soon as we've got something to announce, we'll let everyone know on the Spotify blog (news.spotify.com).
Me (11/10/2016, 2:23:13 PM): I recognize that you couldn't say for certain if/when a feature may be released however you can say if a feature is under consideration/active development?
Jennifer D (11/10/2016, 2:24:25 PM): Usually, if an idea gets more kudos on the Community, Spotify keeps an eye on it and research if it's something that can be made possible.
Jennifer D (11/10/2016, 2:25:05 PM): Since this idea got a lot of attention, we are definitely getting this looked at.
Me (11/10/2016, 2:25:33 PM): This is something that is hotly discussed with over 23 pages of comments
Me (11/10/2016, 2:25:50 PM): So does that mean it is something that is actively under consideration?
Jennifer D (11/10/2016, 2:26:57 PM): I also appreciate you bringing this up with me today. And yes, this idea is actually under consideration, as we also would want you to fully enjoy your Premium for Family benefits with the whole family--your young ones included.

[user-removed]

Thank you jedgson1.  Through most of that transcript it was typical bureaucratic non-answer hilarity, but then her very last comment showed she gets the problem exactly.  Unfortunately this doesn't inspire confidence that anything will happen soon.  I get the impression they are content with their current market share but for my part I will have to stick with Napster.

And by the way the technical solution doesn't have to be that hard.  ALL they have to do is create a kid account in which the kid only has access to songs on a playlist created from a parent account - in other words, whitelisting via playlists.  This could be done within a day in any reasonable codebase but certainly within a couple of weeks when testing / tweaks are accounted for.

[Andihymas]

Would love to vote for this, but it's greyed out.  Common Spotify!  Get with the times!!  We need some form of PARENTAL CONTROLS here!!!

[joshisms]

Is a shame they haven't implemented this feature yet. Could be a really huge game changer for them. The format should be similar to Netflix and other services that offers the entire family the ability to join. An account should be able to be marked as a kids account and have additional filtering options for explicit as well as genre and subject matter. This really is not hard to implement with the huge amount of meta data I know Spotify already collects and uses in building, suggesting, curating playlists. Come on Spotify! Get with the times! This is socially irresponsible and really shows the lack of respect you have for your patrons by dragging your feet on this for 4 years now!

[smay6361]

I Love using my spotify premium acount and pay for the family plan but, Sadly I’m going to have to switch to apple’s streaming service due to lack of parental controls. This is a feature that spotify seems to think isn’t needed…

[Slopez0428]

I just need something that i can listen to on the speakers at work, instead of having to run to turn down a song that i know will have bad language. Just need a edited "everyone listening will be happy" version. Other than that i love spotify! !

[meahtenoha]

Updated: 2016-11-18

Hello everyone, Spotify Staff here again. We wanted to let you all know we still think this is a good idea. We understand that Spotify users that are parents would like a way to filter what their children hear on their accounts. If we have any news regarding a parental control feature we will post here first so you're updated right away. Thanks!

[jacobgraf]

Not good enough. Just implement it already. This is ridiculous.