Spotify keeps playing an artist I have blocked in playlists

[appledude9]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Tesla, iOS 

Operating System

iOS 14, macOS Big Sur, macOS Catalina, Tesla

My Question or Issue

I am an avid listener of the Spotify 'morning show' podcast The Get Up. However, for the last 6 or so weeks, after the first track, the headlines, one or both of the next tracks is a song by artist Olivia Rodrigo. I have never listened to her, and I don't want to. For about a month I started just skipping the tracks. But she was there EVERY. DAY. I decided to finally just go to the artist page and hit "do not play this artist" yesterday. I installed the Spotify update on my MacBook this morning, opened Spotify, started the playlist, and she's still there. (See photo). How do I get this out of my playlist once and for all?

[appledude9]

Update: The track did actually NOT play, thankfully (at least on the macOS desktop app). When skipping through tracks, it jumped from "Take my Breath" to "pop culture roundup"

Hoping the track will not show up in the playlist though in the future. Otherwise, it's occupying a 'dead space' and preventing another track from having the opportunity from playing...

[appledude9]

Issue is still present (see attached photo)

[appledude9]

Issue is still here

[appledude9]

Issue here again today. Anyone from Spotify looking at this thread and have any input? I have never listened to this artist, why is she in slot 2 or 3 of this playlist almost every day, even after 'blocking' her? 

[Alex]

Hey there @appledude9,

Thanks for the post.

Recommendations in playlists such as this one are based on your listening habits, as well as what is most popular with other users with similar taste.

If you've blocked the artists, you should stop seeing recommendations for her songs in the future. Note that it might take a few weeks for the recommendation algorithm to update. In the meantime don't stop listening to your favorite artists and you should see more music from them in the upcoming weeks.

Hope this info helps 🙂

[appledude9]

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the info. For a couple weeks, the artist didn't pop up in my daily listening of The Get Up. But now she's back (attached screenshot). Any thoughts? I'm not sure why it would take over a month for a 'block' button to come into effect 😞 

[Alex]

Hey @appledude9,

Thanks for the post.

Can you clarify if you're seeing content from Olivia Rodrigo in The Get Up on all your devices - Desktop app, Web player, Mobile? On the Web player you might be seeing her tracks as the playlist is not personalized there, which means that it's showing songs from a list that the curators have gathered, which may include artists that you've blocked.

Also, what happens if you press the Hide/ Dislike button on one of the tracks. Does the list update instantly, removing other songs from her or does it stay the same?

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

[appledude9]

Hi Alex,

On the playlist today she (Olivia) was not there so I can't say for sure, but I know yesterday her track appeared in both the Tesla version of Spotify and the desktop version on macOS. I didn't check on the mobile (iOS) version, but it was there on at least two different Spotify apps. I've never used the Web player version before. 

There is no hide or dislike button in The Get Up playlists. Very few playlists seem to have this functionality, which is discussed at length across the forums here. The only playlist I have personally seen the ability to dislike/hide a song is in the Discover Weekly playlist. It makes it very difficult to tailor Spotify's recommendations, but again that's discussed in other forums. To remain on topic here, my only path forward to tailor The Get Up was to go to the artist page to block, which I did, but it didn't seem to actually do that as it's been 3+ weeks and Olivia's music still shows up.

[CarlosE]

Hi @appledude9,

Thanks for your reply and apologies for any confusion.

To confirm, when the song appeared was it playable or was it being skipped? If this happens again, we'd also like to know if the playlist also has those songs in the mobile app.

We'll be on the lookout.

[appledude9]

Hi Carlos,

When it appeared the other day in the playlist, I just decided not to play the playlist anyways so I can't comment on that. However, when the issue was occurring almost daily, I am fairly certain that the track did automatically skip, as I think I noted in an earlier post above. I also believe that when I checked the mobile app a few weeks ago during that time, the track did not show up in the mobile app. There are always two songs in between The Get Up podcast clips, however in the mobile app I am fairly certain there was only one track because it hid the Olivia track. On other Spotify apps, two tracks were visible like in the screenshots, one of which being by Olivia, and would auto-skip. 

Thus, her songs don't play when they appear, but I don't understand why they appear still. It would make logical sense (to me) to just replace one of the songs at track 2 or 3 in The Get Up with another song that won't be auto-deleted (mobile) or auto-skipped (other apps)...

[Jeremy]

Hi there @appledude9,

Thank you for your reply.

Would you mind checking what was asked in the reply above again? 

"Her songs don't play when they appear" - this is expected behavior. If you think you have a better suggestion that will appeal to other users you can always create an idea on the relevant idea board. We always take new ideas and feedback into consideration to improve the app. 

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

Take care!

[appledude9]

Hi, I did confirm that the track does not appear on the iOS app, but it does appear in all other versions of Spotify, as this morning, the blocked artist showed up again in my playlist on Desktop

[Ver · Accepted solution]

Hey @appledude9,

Thanks for keeping us posted 🙂

Due to different platform compatibility with the hide/skip/do not play feature, some tracks might still appear visually, but they should get skipped automatically across platforms if you've used the "Do not play this artist" function, which, as we understand is what is happening.

As of now this is how the app functions and it should ensure that you don't hear any songs from an artist you don't want to listen to, but artists might still be included in some playlists, even personalized ones.

We're continuously working on improving our personalization features, but for now this is expected as long as the track gets skipped.

Hope this sheds some light on the matter. If you need anything else, the Community is here for you.

[CA011]

This is still how it works. Very aggravating to block someone you don’t want to hear. Yet when you shuffle a playlist this artist still gets played every single time.  

[Shelbert]

I am having this issue and the songs from the Artist I have blocked are actually still playing every time. It's not just showing the song but skipping it, they play. 

I have blocked one Artist who is popular but is just overplayed for me and just not really my favorite multiple times and their songs still play if they're in a playlist. When I go back to the artist they are suddenly unblocked and no longer showing as blocked even if I JUST blocked them or even if I wait 24 hrs doesn't matter.

I believe Spotify is getting paid by big artists to not allow people to actually block them so they still get played from playlists even if "blocked" and therefore make more money.