Spotify has started to roll out the new setting worldwide, which prevents music for children and family from changing personal recommendations. When users turn off this option, cartoon songs, children’s program soundtracks, and lullabies Weekly Discovery, Daily Mix and Wrapped does not participate in the calculation. The feature is also applied to past listenings and works via the mobile application for both free and Premium accounts.
According to Spotify’s announcement dated September 15, the “Include children’s and family music in your taste profile” option is turned on by default. Therefore, the user who wants to change the current behavior must turn off the setting himself. The change may not be reflected in the recommendations immediately; The company gives up to 48 hours for personalized results to be updated.
Turning off the setting does not hide children’s music from the application. The user can search for the same tracks, play them and create a playlist with them. Spotify simply excludes these listens from the signals that define the account’s musical taste. In this way, those who use the same phone or account as a family can separate their own recommendations from the songs that children listen to again.
The new option has a broader scope than the previously offered “Extract from pleasure profile” tool. The old tool required removing a specific song or playlist from the user preference. The new setting excludes the content that Spotify puts in the children and family category altogether with a single key.
The setting in the mobile application also clears past listenings.
To access the feature, it is necessary to open the Settings and privacy section from the profile photo, then enter the Content and display menu. When the “Include children’s and family music in your taste profile” switch is turned off, Spotify also removes the relevant past listens from the recommendation account. The company states that previously played children’s songs will not affect the list of most listened to songs or artists on Wrapped.
Spotify explains the scope of children’s music with animated movie songs, family program music, lullabies and similar content. However, the company does not detail how it classifies songs by pop artists that are listened to by both adults and children. For this reason, some songs may be included or excluded from the profile differently than user expectations.
The other option for families is to use managed accounts, which offer individual library and customization for listeners 13 and under. Spotify has started expanding managed accounts to the free tier as well; However, country support for the service is not progressing at the same time. The new setting works inside the parent account, while the managed account gives the child a separate library and year-end summary. Thus, the two vehicles respond to different family usage patterns. The new taste profile key aims to protect the same account’s recommendations from children’s music without setting up a separate account. It may be gradual for the adjustment to reach Turkish accounts.