How to block specific artists on spotify

May 2024 · 18 minute read

How to block specific artists on spotify

While listening to curated radio, the Spotify algorithm tries its best, there will undoubtedly be times when a band or artist you can’t stand will start playing. Sure, you can skip to the next song, but wouldn’t it be better if you could block them altogether? Spotify is now rolling out that ability to users of its mobile app. Here’s a look at how you can block an artist from playing.

Block Artists on Spotify

Launch Spotify on your phone or tablet and head to the “Artist” page of what you never want to hear. Then tap the ellipsis button in the upper-right corner (three dots). Then tap the “Don’t play this artist” option from the dropdown menu.

How to block specific artists on spotify

After that, a brief message will pop up confirming that music from the artist won’t play. That’s it. Even if you go directly to a band or artist’s page and try to manually kick off a tune, it won’t play.

How to block specific artists on spotify

If you want to unblock the artist later, you can simply go back to the “Artist” page and tap “Allow to play this artist” from the menu.

How to block specific artists on spotify

Now, while listening to your radio playlists on Spotify, you won’t hear that artist again. And, from my testing, it syncs the block across other devices you’re logged into with the same account. I was able to block bands using iOS and they were also blocked on my Android devices and even the Spotify app on Roku. However, the option isn’t available on the desktop version or web player yet. Hopefully, we’ll see those versions updated soon.

There are several reasons where this can be helpful. You don’t need to worry about pulling your phone out and unlocking it just to skip a song. Or, maybe you have it streaming through speakers and you don’t want certain music heard. You can block music from bands and artists that you don’t want certain people or young ears to hear.

The company recently updated Spotify Premium with a new user interface, improved search, and a personalized radio feature. It uses algorithms to put together curated playlists based on your listening habits. But there is always something the service thinks you want to hear…but you really don’t. This is a long overdue feature that allows you can take the preemptive step in stopping the music you don’t want to hear.

Need help? Check out Spotify Answers for solutions to a wide range of topics.

The Star feature should be complemented with a way to mark tracks as excluded. Those tracks would then be skipped even when included in the current playlist.
This way the enjoyment of a good album wouldn’t be disrupted by tracks you don’t like, while the album in its entirety can still be kept in the playlist.
The Anti-star can easily be implemented as a flipside to the regular star as they are mutually exclusive. Click the star once, the track becomes a favorite. Click again, the star icon changes to the anti-star and click a third time and either flag is gone.

A no-brainer to me.

Hey,

Thanks for coming to the Community Idea Exchange.
We’re marking this idea as ‘Implemented’.

The option ‘Don’t play this artist’ is now available on iOS and Android.

You can also find more info on hiding individual tracks from playlists or albums here.

If we have any information about this on other platforms in the future, we’ll report back!

Need help? Check out Spotify Answers for solutions to a wide range of topics.

How to block song or artist

Windows Macbook Pro late 2019/ Huawei P30 Pro

Windows 10 (Web/desktop) / Android / Mac os

My Question or Issue

I want to block song and artist in daily mix. I try search dislike button and i don’t find.

How to block specific artists on spotify

How to block specific artists on spotify

How to block specific artists on spotify

Hey @dementir, thanks for reaching out to the Community!

Currently the option to block an artist from being played can only be enabled on phone or tablet. In order to do so, just follow these steps:

  • Head to the “ Artist ” page of the performer you no longer wish to listen to.
  • Tap the three dots in the upper-right corner.
  • Tap the “ Don’t play this artist ” option from the dropdown menu.
  • Afterwards, songs by this artist will no longer be playable on your device and any tracks by the artist included in a playlist will automatically be skipped.

    Just a heads-up, this setting is not carried over on other devices and is not available on desktop devices.

    Hope you’ll find this info useful.

    Hey @dementir, thanks for reaching out to the Community!

    Currently the option to block an artist from being played can only be enabled on phone or tablet. In order to do so, just follow these steps:

  • Head to the “ Artist ” page of the performer you no longer wish to listen to.
  • Tap the three dots in the upper-right corner.
  • Tap the “ Don’t play this artist ” option from the dropdown menu.
  • Afterwards, songs by this artist will no longer be playable on your device and any tracks by the artist included in a playlist will automatically be skipped.

    Just a heads-up, this setting is not carried over on other devices and is not available on desktop devices.

    Hope you’ll find this info useful.

    Spotify, please add this feature on the Mac OS app!

    this doesn’t work for me. I don’t have that option available. I’m trying to block artists that are known racists and **bleep** offenders

    This is so f-ing stupid!

    Yet another one of Spotifys unuserfriendly changes no one in the entire world has asked for.

    They keep making the corridor for what you are “allowed” to listen to narrower and narrower. First it was the complete molesting of local files and then all these small changes over time where you before had an easy way to navigate and let the AI know what you wanted to hear and and not.

    Big money and big companies behind**bleep**, they just want us to listen to what they serve cause they know we are to lazy to navigate through menus and pages to block it and the song has probably ended before we get to it.

    Spotify is faster than expected becoming a really shitty service not valuing their paying costumers.

    exactly, I don’t want to block the artist, just one obnoxious song they stick on to all my recommendations, it’s sooo bleeping annoying.

    Thanks for your honest feedback, we’ve passed it along to the developer team.

    We’re jumping in the thread to add some extra info to what @Billy-J suggested. You also have the option the choose Hide this song from the context menu (the three dots) next to a song on mobile devices. Keep in mind that this feature is applied only to that specific playlist and device. It might come up again in another Daily Mix or the next time you generate a radio, as these count as new playlists.

    If you’d like the option to block a certain song or artist account-wide, we’d recommend you take a look in our Idea Exchange and see if someone has already submitted an idea for this feature to be added and if not post your own.

    Hope you find this useful. Keep us posted if you have any questions.

    Need help? Check out Spotify Answers for solutions to a wide range of topics.

    is it possible to block a certain artist?

    is it possible to block a certain artist from showing up in your feed and in your autoplay? for example, i really really hate the weeknd, is it possible for me to block his songs from autoplaying on playlists (i.e top 40, etc)?

    C’mon Spotify, improve your effing software already! Everybody hates at least one band, why can’t we ban them FOREVER from our radio stations? The sound of the Flaming Lips makes me lose my effing mind. Worst band ever, next to Kid Rock, of course.

    Based on the amount of requests on this particular subject, just effing do it already.

    My wife asked me the same thing, so I made a tiny, simple tool that does just that 🙂

    This is a virus Trojan.Win64.Barys.eeaces – be warned

    This is not solved. I really want this feature. some songs I dislike and they come in playlists again and again.

    I hate some artist and they come again and again on may radio, or weekly suggestions

    In the daily mix it is not even possible to remove the tracks of artists I do not want to hear untill these are playing. Come on at least give us that to remove the real stinkers from the daily mix before they torture us.

    Or just let me personally ban **bleep** artists like Ted Nugent or Starship/Jefferson Airplane/Airplaine or what the **bleep** that band is called today so that I do not have to hear then ever again. I’m paying for the music I listen to on spotify. Woild You like it to be forced to buy cd’s from artists you do not like in order to be able to buy the ones that you do like?

    I’m really starting to think about voting for all the issues that I have raised with my wallet and take my business elsewhere.

    I love finding new artists on Spotify to listen to but hate when musicians I don’t like keep popping up in recommended playlists and radio stations. For the longest time, there was nothing you could do about it, but now, Spotify lets you block specific bands and singers from ever playing again.

    The blocked artist feature seemed to be a response to the overwhelming #MuteRKelly movement to protest and boycott singer R. Kelley’s work over his long history of sexual abuse. At first, Spotify merely removed the artist from Spotify-curated playlists and not the service, and it eventually backtracked due to its vague policy language. And that’s pretty much how we got artist-blocking abilities.

    Block an Artist Completely

    The blocking feature first appeared on iOS, but now it’s available for Android too, and it works the same. To block an artist, tap on their name from a song or open their page from a search. Next, hit the vertical or horizontal ellipsis (•••) icon on an artist’s page, then select “Don’t play this artist” (iOS) or “Don’t play this” (Android).

    How to block specific artists on spotify How to block specific artists on spotify

    If you were in the middle of playing a song from the artist and you blocked them, the song will immediately switch to something else by someone else. If on iOS, their page will also clearly show the no sign icon where the “Follow” button used to be, but on Android, there is no clear indicator.

    What You Won’t Hear & See Anymore

    After hiding an artist, they will no longer show up or play in Discover Weekly, Daily Mixes, and radio stations. They’ll also disappear from automatically curated playlists, as well as genre, charts, new releases, and even your own custom playlists. However, when a guest collaborator on another artist’s track, those will still play, as Spotify only blocks songs from the main artist.

    As mentioned, the artist will be hidden from your own custom playlists, but any songs you’ve liked by the artist will still show up in your “Favorite Songs” playlist. You’ll also always be able to search for the artist and view their popular tracks, and they will still appear in your “Recently Played” list until they get pushed out by playing songs from other musicians.

    Unblock an Artist on Spotify

    If you change your mind about a singer, rapper, group, etc., you can unblock them. Spotify hasn’t included a list anywhere for all of your blocked artists, so open the artist’s page via a search or whenever you happen across them. On iOS, you can just tap the no sign to unban them immediately. Otherwise, tap the ellipsis (•••), then choose “Allow to play this artist” (iOS) or “Allow to play this” (Android).

    How to block specific artists on spotify How to block specific artists on spotify

    As of right now, you can’t block or unblock artists from the Spotify web player or desktop apps. However, any blocks and unblocks you make will sync across platforms. Hopefully, all platforms get the controls, but for now, you’ll need to do everything in Spotify’s mobile apps.

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    One of Spotify’s best features is its auto-generated playlists, which include your Discovery Weekly list and your Daily Mixes.

    But if there’s an artist that you want to make sure doesn’t appear in these playlists, you can mute them. This will stop Spotify from sorting their music into your playlists.

    It’s worth noting, however, that this only applies to music that a specific artist has released themselves. Songs by another artist that they’ve featured on might still be included.

    To mute an artist on Spotify, you should use the mobile app for your iPhone or Android device. In the desktop app, you can only mute specific songs from showing up in your Discover Weekly playlist.

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    How to mute artists on Spotify using the mobile app

    1. Open the Spotify app on your iPhone or Android device and navigate to the official page of the artist you want to mute. You can find this by searching for the artist, or by starting a song by them and tapping their name.

    2. On the artist’s page, tap the three dots located in the upper-right corner.

    3. Tap “Don’t play this artist.”

    How to mute artists on Spotify using the desktop app

    If you use the desktop app for Mac or PC, you can’t mute artists in the same way. Instead, you can only hide artists or songs on your Discover Weekly playlist.

    Discover Weekly is a Spotify-created playlist of 25 to 30 songs that change each Monday, based on your listening preferences.

    When you hide an artist or song from your Discover Weekly playlist, it won’t mute everything by that artist, but Spotify will be less likely to suggest that song and artist in the future.

    To do this, open Discover Weekly and click the “cancel” icon next to any song. You can then select to mute either the song or the artist.

    Need help? Check out Spotify Answers for solutions to a wide range of topics.

    The Star feature should be complemented with a way to mark tracks as excluded. Those tracks would then be skipped even when included in the current playlist.
    This way the enjoyment of a good album wouldn’t be disrupted by tracks you don’t like, while the album in its entirety can still be kept in the playlist.
    The Anti-star can easily be implemented as a flipside to the regular star as they are mutually exclusive. Click the star once, the track becomes a favorite. Click again, the star icon changes to the anti-star and click a third time and either flag is gone.

    A no-brainer to me.

    Hey,

    Thanks for coming to the Community Idea Exchange.
    We’re marking this idea as ‘Implemented’.

    The option ‘Don’t play this artist’ is now available on iOS and Android.

    You can also find more info on hiding individual tracks from playlists or albums here.

    If we have any information about this on other platforms in the future, we’ll report back!

    Last Updated: February 17, 2019 Tested

    This article was co-authored by our trained team of editors and researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness. wikiHow’s Content Management Team carefully monitors the work from our editorial staff to ensure that each article is backed by trusted research and meets our high quality standards.

    The wikiHow Tech Team also followed the article’s instructions and verified that they work.

    This article has been viewed 1,782 times.

    This wikiHow teaches you how to exclude a certain artist from your personally-curated mixes and playlists on Spotify, using an iPhone or iPad. You can edit all your personal mixes, including your daily mixes, Release Radar, and Discover Weekly.

    How to block specific artists on spotify

    How to block specific artists on spotify

    How to block specific artists on spotify

    How to block specific artists on spotify

    How to block specific artists on spotify

    How to block specific artists on spotify

    How to block specific artists on spotify

    How to block specific artists on spotify

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    How to block specific artists on spotify

    Whenever I’m listening to a playlist on Spotify or Google Play Music and Creedence Clearwater Revival comes on, I want to gouge my ears out with a fork. As I listen to a lot of classic rock, I’ve very nearly removed my own hearing apparatus. It’s not that I don’t think the band is musically talented, or that I don’t actually like the music – it’s just a band that’s been so overplayed thanks to Fortunate Son being in every Vietnam war movie, and Bad Moon rising being on every old person’s wedding playlist that the sound of John Fogerty’s voice makes me want to stick pointy objects in my aural cavities.

    Spotify is aiming to keep my ears safe. The company is busy testing a new feature that’ll allow users to block or mute specific artists. According to The Verge, the new feature will block an artist entirely, so “that songs from the artist will never play from a library, playlist, chart list, or even radio stations on Spotify.”

    It’s a feature that the company was considering implementing a few years back, but decided against in 2017. Now, thanks to pressure to offer the feature thanks to the scathing new documentary that highlights 25 years of sexual abuse allegations against R Kelly, Spotify is going to allow users to mute specific artists. Following the #MuteRKelly protests, Spotify removed the singer from its curated playlists, but his work was still available to stream. Now, users will be able to make the choice themselves.

    Are there any bands or artists in genres you actually like that you’d love to never hear again? Who will you be blocking when Spotify rolls this feature out to more people?

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