Spotify Introduces New Feature to Mute Artists You Don't Like

Sorry, Twiddle :::flips switch:::

Spotify got some attention yesterday when smart users caught that the platform now allows you to “block” a certain artist from showing up in a Playlist or randomly finding itself in a “play this next” queue on shuffle. It’s not yet available anywhere, only on the mobile app, but this is a great, new feature for a platform that start to introduce auto-play and shuffle into how it builds some of its playlists. And after this whole R. Kelly mess and people pushing hashtags to get his music removed, this seems to be a feature that is the best of both worlds for both the platforms and the users.

Finally, I can put on jamband playlists without the fear of Twiddle creeping in for me. :::phew:::

The function is unable to track when an artist is featured on someone else’s song (that is, listed as “ft. Artist” in the song title) but not credited as a primary artist. The block feature is currently available to access on the Spotify mobile app, but has yet to go wide on the desktop app or web player versions. Pitchfork has reached out to Spotify representatives for more information.