Spotify Customers Will Be Able To Block Artists They Don't Like
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Wouldn't it be amazing if you never had to hear from a particular band or singer ever again?
Life's too short for bad music and it would seem that the people at Spotify feel the same way - as evidenced by a new feature which will allow customers to remove artists from their libraries.
This breakthrough will mean you'll be able to mute or block anyone you want. Don't like One Direction, Kylie Minogue, or The Black Eyed Peas? No problem, this means they'll never creep up on you in the middle of a playlist. Ever. Again.
According to reports by tech site Thurrott earlier this week, the streaming service has been testing out the new 'don't play this artist' feature on an upcoming iOS app. Prior to this, it has allowed customers to block songs by an artist, although this doesn't apply to tracks that an artist is simply 'featured' on.
Users will be able to access the nifty new feature through the '...' menu on an artist's page, where customers can click 'don't play this artist', and voilà! They're gone.
Unsurprisingly, the news has gone down well with Spotify users, who have been thanking the site for finally allowing them to escape their most hated singers.
One person posted: "Thank you Spotify for finally letting me block artists whose music I don't like."
Another wrote: "You can block artists on @Spotify? This is beautiful."
A third customer seemed even more excited, commenting: "OH MY GOD I CAN FINALLY BLOCK ARTISTS I HATE ON SPOTIFY!!!!!"
Earlier this week, Spotify posted on Twitter to explain that blocking an artist was 'not possible right now', although as Engadget points out, the function appears to be available on iOS at present. It is not yet known whether it will be rolled out further.
LADbible has contacted Spotify for comment.
The streaming service reportedly looked into giving users the ability to block or mute artists and songs back in 2017, but 'after serious consideration' decided against it.
The u-turn comes after increasing pressure over the past year to to curb the impact of 'problematic' artists. Spotify announced last year that it would stop promoting the music of R&B singer R. Kelly, as the #MuteRKelly movement helped bring attention to the accusations against him.
In a tweet one customer asked the streaming site to install the block feature.
They said: "@Spotify need to give us the option to block/blacklist certain artists. If they're too cowardly to stop promoting disgusting people on their platform they need to at least give us the power to choose for ourselves not to listen to them.
"What's happening is your platform continues to promote and enable abusive and problematic artists and for those of us who have no desire to listen to them, there's no option to blacklist certain artists from our radio stations/playlists."
Featured Image Credit: PA
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