How you can prevent that band you hate from popping up in your Spotify playlists.
A friend and I like to argue about this one band’s music. I think their songs are great. She thinks they’re Satanic Cheez Whiz served on hemlock salad.
There’s one lyric in particular she’s convinced are the worst words ever sung. It’s the exact same line that made me pull off the highway seven years ago to Shazam who was playing on my car radio. She thinks the phrase is awkward. I think it’s forward. She thinks it’s contrived. I think it’s true. She thinks it’s hokey. I think it’s devastating.
I know musical tastes are subjective… but I’m right. ; )
Blocking an artist’s music on Spotify
Anyway, a few months back she asked me if there was a way she could mute this band on Spotify forever. Because dear god, they keep putting out new music. She wanted to ensure none of their songs would ever again appear on her algorithmically-generated playlists such as Release Radar and Discover Weekly.
I thought there was a way. Poked around. Couldn’t find it. Assumed the universe just wanted her to keep hearing this band. Wondered if Spotify removed the feature. Questioned my memory.
And then, earlier this month, Spotify rolled out a MUTE button. Actually, it’s a “Don’t Play This Artist” button.
You can find it in the Spotify mobile app (not yet available on desktop) by clicking the ellipses on an artist’s Spotify profile. Selecting that button will block the artist’s music from appearing while you engage with Spotify playlists, Spotify radio, and more.
Forever is a mighty long time
And down the road if you feel differently about hitting the mute button — perhaps because you realize I’m right about that brilliant band after all — you can just switch it back and let yourself enjoy those “mashed potatoes, and an extra chicken wing.”
Chris Robley is an acclaimed singer-songwriter and award-winning poet from Maine.
His Beatlesque indie-pop and milltown Americana songs have been praised by The Associated Press, No Depression, KCRW, The LA Times, Boston Globe, NPR, American Songwriter, and others.
His poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, Prairie Schooner, The Poetry Review, and more.
Robley has received a Maine Literary Award in Poetry, Boulevard’s Emerging Writers Prize for Poetry, and in 2016 was selected by former US-poet laureate Robert Pinsky as a finalist for the Dorset Prize.