How To Disable Explicit Music On Spotify

Depending on who you ask, explicit content can have a lot of definitions, but it is usually defined by sexual, violent, or mature themes. While explicit content has been around since the dawn of time, the rise of music streaming apps has made it even more ubiquitous, even to people who don't necessarily look for it.

In 2021, the Intelligent Music Agency published its research on the top 600 tracks by number of streams on Spotify, which revealed that 18.23% of the songs from 2010 to 2015 had explicit lyrical content. Just five years later, the share of explicit content had increased to 35%, revealing a rise in popularity of the use of explicit language in music.

When certain content is explicit, Spotify will typically add tags next to the song or album name: Explicit (desktop) or E (mobile). To reach a wider audience, some artists will release variations of their songs, so you can opt to listen to either the clean or explicit version. Unfortunately, for those who wish to do so, it can be impossible to remove all explicit content from your Spotify account entirely. However, if you prefer to go without it, there are a few methods for filtering out explicit content from your Spotify account.

One of the most straightforward ways to keep explicit content away from your playlists is by simply curating each playlist more mindfully. In fact, there are entire playlists dedicated to clean versions of the latest top hits. Alternatively, you can enable Spotify's explicit content filter, which has been tagged by its content partners. Whether you're a free Spotify user or pay for an individual plan, there are two ways to turn off the feature that allows explicit content: mobile or desktop. 

Before you can make these changes, be sure you're not using your Spotify account on another device, such as a smart home device or a desktop. Otherwise, here's how to do it on your iPhone or Android phone:

1. On your mobile phone, launch the Spotify app.

2. In the upper-left corner, tap your user image.

3. Tap Settings and Privacy.

4. Select Content Preferences.

5. Next go to Allow Explicit Content, toggle off the button.

Alternatively, you may also disable explicit music through your Spotify desktop.

1. On your computer, launch the Spotify app.

2. In the upper-right corner, click your username.

3. Select Settings.

4. Under Explicit Content, toggle off the button next to Allow Playback of Explicit-rated Content.

Once you switch off the explicit content feature, you'll still see the explicit song names on Spotify. However, they will be grayed out, unplayable, and automatically skipped.

Depending on what country you're from, Spotify does limit explicit content automatically based on your local guidelines. For example, in Korea, Spotify restricts explicit content for account holders who are under 19 years old. However, this filter will only work if account owners are honest about their age when signing up to Spotify.

If you're not sure if your Spotify family members were truthful about their age when setting up their accounts, here's how you can disable explicit music for certain members of your Premium Family Plan:

1. On your mobile or desktop browser, go to the Spotify website and log into your account.

2. Click your Spotify profile image.

3. Under Subscription, click Manage Members.

4. On the Manage your Family Plan screen, go to the Plan Members section.

5. Next to the username of the account you want to disable explicit content for, click the right-facing arrow.

6. Under Play Explicit Music, toggle off the button to disable playback of music tagged as explicit from the specific member's account.

If you are concerned about sexual content in music lyrics, or if you have children using your Family Plan subscription, you may want to consider using Spotify Kids.

Unfortunately, Spotify can occasionally miss out on explicit music, especially if it was improperly tagged by its content partners. Because of this, a few explicit songs may still pop up when you're listening to new music. Thankfully, there are two ways to find clean versions of songs shared on the music streaming app, either by manually searching for the clean version and checking for more releases.

For mobile, tablet, and web player Spotify users, you can manually search for the song name and check if a version with the "Explicit" or "E" tag exists. Alternatively, you can add the phrase "clean version" at the end of the song name when searching. For Spotify listeners who have access to its desktop app, you can also view the album with explicit content and scroll down to the bottom of the track list. On the bottom-right side, click "X more release." Aside from hiding songs you don't like, if you find an improperly tagged explicit track, you can also report it to Spotify for review.