Spotify introduce explicit filter for child-friendly music streaming
As music streaming becomes the way people are listening to music more and more around the world, Spotify are getting their platform ready for kids.
Spotify have begun rolling out an explicit content filter to block out any explicit or offensive content from their music streaming service. Spotify’s recently introduced explicit filter is available for individual users with plans to bring it to family plans as they continue testing the feature.
The feature is currently limited, particularly in comparison to other streaming services with filters for offensive content. Currently the feature can only be used by Premium users on the mobile app but Spotify are bringing their content filter to “more devices coming soon!”. The filter will only apply when playing from the phone, for example it won’t carry over to your desktop listening or apply when using Spotify Connect to stream through devices and speakers.
Users have been requesting a filter for explicit music and content on Spotify for years and whilst Spotify have acknowledged their requests they have until now ignored the feature. Rivals like Apple Music and Pandora have offered explicit content filters for a while now, attracting parents who want to allow their kids to stream music but not listen to explicit artists or tracks – an audience Spotify have been missing out on.
Spotify are late to the game in their content filter options and should look to roll it our beyond Premium on mobile as soon as possible. The first music streaming service just for kids was revealed last month which could become the go-to for parents with a service fully built around child-friendliness, parental control and with a cheaper price tag than most of the big streamers.
For Premium Spotify streamers on mobile you can set your explicit content filters on by going to Your Library, then Settings, tapping on Explicit Content and selecting to switch Allow Explicit Content off. This will grey out any explicit tracks you comes across making them unplayable.
why is there no pin number to access the parental controls, its’ on my son’s spotify premium account that he has the password for. He can just turn back on the explicit content. It should be further blocked with a PIN or access code like other parental controls
I agree. What’s the point of turning off explicit content if the user can just turn it back on? It should be controlled by the owner of the plan, not the rest of the family.
Seriously? Self policing parental controls. My daughter will be cancelling
That’s what my kid did from day one. This is especially important after introducing podcasts where some truly disturbing content can be accessed.
1. Please allow a PIN number to restrict access to parental settings.
or
2. Allow adjusting these options on master account level (for the whole family).
or
3. Allow setting these via the “family overview” site.
Agree with all comments above. What is the point of having an Explicit content button if my kid can just turn it back on whenever he wants? Come on Spotify… you can do better than this! Better hurry, because I will be canceling soon if this isn’t implemented. Plenty of other music options that are parent-friendly.
This is why I left Spotify, My kids asked for a sesame street song, and gont someones lewd version about elmo spunking on Kate Perrys T!Ts. i kid you not !! cannot have a service capable of channeling that into my home. Spotify are light years behind on this. I went with google.
spotfiy did it so stupid. Starting from age restriction so people fake out kids age and to this totally stupid “play explicit’ control which is even built away to make user enable it back. oh spotify, you make me cancel my subscribtion
What’s disappointing is that Spotify has created a family billing service, but the accounts are unmanaged and allowed to do whatever they want. Every other popular streaming application has the ability to either 1) have one account manage other account’s settings (difficult to develop) or 2) prevent the managed account from changing settings with a PIN (simple to develop). I’ll take either option, just give me something to work with.
I would absolutely love to continue using Spotify, but without that control over my kids’ accounts, it’s very hard to justify.
I find it unbelievable that Spotify has not implemented a PROPER parental control yet. I am currently investigating other music streaming services.
Hi Greg, Spotify recently updated their Family Plan accounts so that the account holder has more control over the explicit filters on each person streaming from the account. You can find more about that here, I hope that’s more like what you were after from them!
https://routenote.com/blog/spotifys-family-plan-gets-an-upgrade/
Having parental control on spotify is actually a good idea so parents can use this feature to log into the grown-up sections on Spotify Kids. However, if the kid is techy, he/she can still turn it back on. Maybe it’ll be good to add a PIN on it.
Having parental control on spotify is actually a good idea so parents can use this feature to log into the grown-up sections on Spotify Kids. However, if the kid is techy, he/she can still turn it back on. Maybe it’ll be good to add a PIN on it.