Culture Spotify testing a filter to block out sweary songs - No progress on filtering out horrible chart shit though.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43866531

Spotify, the UK's biggest music streaming service, has started testing a way of filtering out songs which have explicit lyrics.

The feature has been introduced on its iPhone and iPad apps - six years after being requested on its online forums.

But some users have told BBC Radio 5 live: that the feature does not have enough controls.

Rivals such as Apple Music already have password-protected parental controls to skip explicit tracks.

'Awkward moments'
Since 2011, streaming music providers have been expected to display the word "explicit" next to tracks that record companies believe are unsuitable for children.

Currently more than a third of the Top 50 songs in Spotify's UK chart contain explicit lyrics.

Mother Nicola Ford set up an online petition calling for the filter after she was caught out listening at home.

She said: "I'd had quite a few awkward moments, where the kids had been listening to songs on the radio, and suddenly our home filled [with swear words] when they played the same songs on Spotify.

"I set up a petition online and found that lots of people were petitioning for the same thing, so I got a lot of interest."

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Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionDaniel Ek co-founded Swedish streaming company Spotify in 2006
The new setting, which was first introduced at the start of April, greys out explicit songs and prevents them from playing, but it doesn't replace them with clean versions.

Nicola says this does not go far enough.

"The kids want to listen to the song that they've heard, so they will try and sneak the song in.

"If they are going to try to listen to the song, I'd like them to get the clean versions."

'Beta version'
Others have complained that the setting. which is only available to Premium users, does not have a Pin code and can be changed by anyone with access to the device.

"It would be useful for the account holder, the parent, to control the setting," says Nicola.

"All these companies need to try really hard to help us manage what goes on in our homes, Spotify included. I think they could have shown interest a lot earlier."

Spotify describes the explicit content filter as a "beta version" and says it is currently being tested for "some users".

In a statement it said: "We are always testing new products and experiences at Spotify, but have no further news to share on a product launch at this time."

So because the chart is full of sweary boys and major record labels love marketing bland crap to kids, busybody parents are on a crusade to get Spotify to block out explicit songs so their cherubs earsies won't have to endure horrid words.

Motherfucker, they will just listen to it on a less censorious streaming service, you don't want your kids listening to musicians saying naughty words? Give 'em a slap upside the head and make them listen to someone who doesn't use foul language, The Smiths for instance (just not The Headmaster Ritual).

 
Give 'em a slap upside the head and make them listen to someone who doesn't use foul language,

But you see, the problem is that that involves actually parenting, which takes effort. Still like you said, this is an idiotic move and kids will just listen to it through some other means, this is yet another idiotic and censorious measure taken by idle parents who just want child-rearing to be on cruise control and not have to actually curate what media their kids interact with.

In yesteryear it was the television, nowadays it's the blue glow of a computer screen. Used to be labels on C.D. cases, now it's algorithms on spotify.
 
I guarantee you once these kids find out that they can get pretty much any song they want without paying for it and get the explicit version too with just a little digging, they won't see any reason to use Spotify anymore.

Seriously, you can find pretty much any album you want just by searching the artist name and album name followed by "zip" or "rar" or "blogspot" or some combination of the above.
 
Censorship seems to be the real megatrend of our age. Perhaps it's as I have suspected; that some humans inherently are scared of having too much freedom, which leads them to want to take it away from everyone.
 
Everyone in this thread can't read.It's not censorship it's not removing the songs it's just an optional setting that you aren't forced to use,options to filter "adult" content are not something new

Calm down you raging tards
 
Because parents telling their kids that they can't listen to something because they don't like it has always worked oh-so-well in the past.
 
But you didn't post Godflesh.
ftfy

Anyway, this is so fucking stupid.

Like @SwanDive said, this is the exact thing you don't do to get kids not to listen to something.

Do these fuckers not know that is why bands like Marilyn Manson got so big?

We might get a new generation of legit shock artists trying to find ways to bypass this thing, though.
 
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Why the fuck do people still use Spotify anyway? Piracy is better, it's free and you sometimes find music by artists that aren't even in Spotify. If you want to support the artist then buy their fucking albums.
 
The outraged parents were probably listening to Easy-E pirated off of Napster when they were kids.

If you want sanitized music turn on the goddamn radio. Fer fucks sake. No need to shit up another avenue of entertainment with your moral crusade.

Radio took away Hair of the Dog, Money for Nothin' got neutered, the devil who went down to Georgia is no longer a son of a bitch, etc. This is the inoffensive entertainment venue you seek.
 
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Everyone in this thread can't read.It's not censorship it's not removing the songs it's just an optional setting that you aren't forced to use,options to filter "adult" content are not something new

Calm down you raging tards

Children are little faggots who should get used to offensive words.
What if they meet a person with tourette's that can only say FUCKBURGERS? It'd be pretty bad if they shunned him coz he said a few naughty words. Think of the Tourette's kids!
 
Censorship seems to be the real megatrend of our age. Perhaps it's as I have suspected; that some humans inherently are scared of having too much freedom, which leads them to want to take it away from everyone.

Some humans simply can't stand things they don't like existing.

The left previously positioned themselves as anti-censorship but now are in full support of it because the issues of "feminism" have overtaken everything.

What music will be hit hardest by this? Rap, country and rock'n roll. These genres largely glorify independence, masculinity and quite often absolutely crap on polite society. Polite society is the sjws greatest tool and they can't have that challenged. Of course, I don't think they have it all planned out and are probably just working to get rid of things that offend them on a subconscious level.

Everyone in this thread can't read.It's not censorship it's not removing the songs it's just an optional setting that you aren't forced to use,options to filter "adult" content are not something new

Calm down you raging tards

It's part of a larger trend of large corporations catering to moral busybodies and people who want us to "think of the children".

It won't be long before this race to the bottom leads to actual censorship... oh wait...
 
It's part of a larger trend of large corporations catering to moral busybodies and people who want us to "think of the children".
No it isn't,filtering "adult" content is not anything new nor is it ever going away
There is not a single negative thing about this change,you aren't forced to use it
 
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