Hidden Songs/Artists Still Playing

[etherealcure]

Plan

Premium Family Plan

Country

USA

Device(s)

Samsung S23 Ultra (but also on Samsung Galaxy Tab S6; Spotify on Roku; Windows 10 laptop)

My Question or Issue
Hidden songs and artists are playing on all Spotify-generated playlists. The songs and artists are hidden on the playlists as well as directly on their pages. The songs and artists still play. It does not matter if I'm listening directly on any of the devices above or if I'm playing through my Powerbeats Pro or Beats Fit Pro. The songs and artists still play. Also, if it is a playlist that Spotify made for me (examples: daylist, daily mixes, discover weekly, etc), it still recommends those songs and artists. This feature is not working at all. How do I block artists and songs permanently across the app on my account? 

[ChooseAGoodUsername]

Spotify doesn't have a specific feature that allows users to block individual songs. The blocking feature is primarily designed at the artist level, allowing you to avoid an entire artist's catalog. You can hide a song within a playlist but it doesn't hide it globally.

On the Spotify mobile app for Android, you can block an artist's music from playing. Here are the steps:

1. Open the Spotify App: Launch the Spotify app on your android device.

2. Navigate to the Artist's Page: Find the artist whose music you want to block. You can do this by searching for the artist or going to their page from a song they are associated with.

3. Tap the Three Dots: On the artist's page, tap on the three dots located near the top-right corner.

4. Select "Don't Play This Artist": From the menu that appears, select "Don't Play This Artist." This will prevent the artist's songs from playing on your Spotify account.

[fleurmartin]

Thats not true. I have a playlist made for me by Spotify. I blocked a song. It would skip it although i could get this artist on other playlists. ( i just did t lime that song). But a few weeks ago it stopped skipping it even tho it still looks blocked. I rebooted and re hid it. Still plays it. Spotify is messing up bad these days and not just with this.

[Jodie653]

If you hide a song in a playlist it still plays. That's the problem.

[xMJJMoonwalker]

YES I've been having this issue for months! I even reached out to Spotify to ask for help. All they had to offer was to try uninstalling and reinstalling the app. And it worked... once. The next time I played that same album, it played the song I have hidden.

I have "Vore" from "Take Me Back To Eden" by Sleep Token hidden because I love the album but don't care for that song. Ever since the app updated, it started playing the hidden song. Nothing has fixed it since. I've had to recreate the album in a playlist that just doesn't have that song on it.

[Skully9]

Premium member for a while now and after numerous clashes with tech support advice, which ultimately leads to becoming a mobile device programmer to completely delete all trace of the mobile app, for a complete waste of time. Patchwork is the spotify way to keep the revenue flowing. We are left with a glitchy program to deal with. If not for the amount of musical artists from various genres I enjoy, I would not have an account at all. I believe spotify is well aware and will continue their S.O.P. knowing they're still the most affordable non Apple option. *Samsung S23+*

[sataylor000]

To add some data from my experience:  playlists that generate suggestions for artists I have blocked/hidden as "Don't play content from this artist" were properly skipped in playlists (including spotify-generated lists like "Release Radar" up until a week or two ago.  As of today, I have multiple items that are "dimmed out" in the playlist, and you can't manually play those from the interface (here, I'm using the desktop app in Windows11).  But, when you play the previous tune in the playlist, it will continue in the list and now plays the blocked tune.  This is a difference in behavior from a week or maybe two weeks ago, so it feels like something broke in the interface very recently...

Screenshot attached where I am currently playing a tune via the above repro step even though it shows as dimmed/blocked in the playlist.

[Skully9]

This issue has been happening to me daily for a year. Playlists or albums, will still play songs I've blocked. Zero help from spotty

[sataylor000]

FYI, I also tried clearing the cache and restarting the app, and this did not affect the issue.

Here's my current version:

Spotify for Windows (64 bit)
1.2.53.440.g7b2f582a

[jennmartinelli]

This has been happening to me for a long time too. I have a couple of artists blocked because I don't want to hear them at all. I still will just randomly hear at least one of them all the time. Every time their song comes up I go to check to make sure I still have the artist blocked, and I do. It doesn't seem to matter. Hey Spotify, are you OK???? I don't want to have to search through years and thousands of "liked" songs to remove individual songs which I don't know when I saved. I blocked the artist, I don't want to hear them ever. Make it work.

[Maria]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for posting on the Community! Apologies for the delayed reply from our end, as we just came across this one.

As it sounds like you might be experiencing different issues, there are a few things we'd like to clear up. It's also worth noting that Don't play this artist (which blocks a certain artist from playing), differs from the Hide feature (which is only available for certain playlists).

When using Hide on a song, it will only apply to this specific track and playlist. Keep in mind that the setting only transfers between devices with Made For You playlists, such as Release Radar.

So, as an example, if you Hide a track in Release Radar on the desktop app, it won't play on the mobile app either. It might still be visible in the list, but it should be skipped automatically during playback. This also means that hiding songs on other Spotify created playlists that are not included Made For You (which can only be done through the mobile app > 3 dot menu) doesn't not transfer between devices.

If you've noticed an app behavior which seems to be different to the scenarios described above, it could be related to this Ongoing Issues thread, where our tech folks currently are investigating some troubles with hidden songs, so feel free to have a look there for more details. You can also leave a comment with the requested info there, should it be what you're experiencing as well!

On another note, the Don't play this artist feature should still sync between all your devices. If you changed the setting just recently, it's worth clearing cache from the app & then log out/in again, which will resync the account details. With this in mind, there could be some tracks where the blocked artist is featured on songs, and may in this case still be played. Should you have any trouble with blocking a certain artist, you can create a new thread on our Help Board, as this one will be locked to provide better visibility.

We hope this clears things up! Cheers.