How to Mute Explicit Lyrics on Spotify

Music streaming services like Spotify bring a myriad of genres straight to our ears, including some that come with explicit content, defined by themes that are sexual, violent, or mature in nature. For various reasons, users may prefer to avoid such material. Spotify, being aware of this, provides a feature to filter out explicit content. In recent studies, explicit content in top tracks has risen significantly, which has brought about an increased need for filtering options.

Enabling Spotify's Explicit Content Filter

An effective approach to prevent explicit songs from playing is to utilize Spotify's filtering options. Both free and individual premium Spotify users can access this feature. If you want to curate a family-friendly listening experience, or simply prefer not to engage with explicit content, follow these steps:

To adjust the settings on your mobile device:

1. Open the Spotify app on your phone.
2. Tap on your profile icon in the top-left corner.
3. Access the 'Settings and Privacy' menu.
4. Choose 'Content Preferences'.
5. Turn off the 'Allow Explicit Content' option.

For desktop users, follow these steps:

1. Start the Spotify desktop application.
2. Click on your username in the top-right corner.
3. Navigate to 'Settings.'
4. In the 'Explicit Content' section, disable the 'Allow Playback of Explicit-rated Content' feature.

However, even with this feature disabled, explicit songs will still appear on playlists and charts but will be grayed out and skipped during playback.

Managing Explicit Content for Family Plan Users

For those subscribed to Spotify's Premium Family Plan, managing content for each member is also possible. Follow these steps to ensure a safe listening environment for younger audience members or for users who'd prefer clean versions:

1. Log into your account via Spotify's web platform.
2. Click your profile image.
3. Within the 'Subscription' section, select 'Manage Members.'
4. In the 'Plan Members' area, use the arrow next to the username of the family member's account you want to manage.
5. Disable the 'Play Explicit Music' option to prevent playing explicit tracks on that specific account.

For parents, the Spotify Kids app is another alternative designed specifically for children, which inherently excludes explicit content.

Finding Clean Versions and Reporting Mistags

Occasionally, Spotify's filter might miss some explicit songs due to improper tagging. Thus, it's important to know how to search for clean versions:

On mobile or tablet, directly search for a song and include 'clean version' at the end of your query. If you're on desktop, investigate an album's explicit content and click on 'X more release' to find different versions, possibly including a clean one. Additionally, if a song with explicit content slips through without proper tagging, Spotify allows users to report such tracks for review.

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