Spotify will stop your partner’s metal fandom ruining recommendations

You can now stop earworming abominations on Spotify

(Picture: Cottonbro Studio / Pexels)

For people who don’t use Spotify to cycle through the same five albums over and over again, the app’s recommendation system is an unnervingly good way of introducing you to new music that you’ll enjoy.

But, as anybody who shares an account will know, your recommendations can be polluted by playlists shared with your partner or created for children. If you’ve ever had your Discover Weekly playlist spoiled by a sudden blast of metal or the earworming abomination of Baby Shark, you’ll know exactly what we mean.

Now Spotify has a way of limiting the damage: “Exclude from your Taste Profile”. As the name suggests, at the touch of a button, you can block specific playlists and Blends from being assessed as part of your Taste Profile — the secret source by which Spotify builds your top songs and Daily Mixes.

In theory, that means that you won’t be recommended metal tracks that your partner would love, but you’d hate. And vice versa: he or she won’t be getting show tunes or Disney singalongs in their metal mix — just as long as you stick to your own profiles, of course. A welcome peace-keeping policy from Spotify with Valentine’s Day just around the corner.

Pleasingly, playlists you mark for exclusion will apply retroactively, so both past and future listens won’t impact your Taste Profile. The only exception is songs on the playlist that you’ve actively Liked, for obvious reasons.

The feature rolled out to the web, desktop, iOS, and Android versions of Spotify this week, and enabling it is pretty straightforward:

Excluding playlists from a Spotify Taste Profile (Spotify)

1. Pick the playlist you want to exclude.
2. Tap or click the three dots near the top of said playlist.
3. Select “Exclude from your Taste Profile”.

You can reverse the process at any time by the same methods, should you decide you’ve made a grave error.

Perhaps best of all, Exclude from your Taste Profile can apply to playlists created via Blend — collaborative tracklists automatically generated by Spotify based on the diverse tastes of up to 10 friends, colleagues, or family members.

If you’ve been avoiding Blend for fear of what it might do to your recommendations, you can now proceed without concerns. Here’s how to get started:

1. Search “Blend” in the search tab in Spotify.
2. Tap “Invite” to select the friends on Spotify that you want to join you.
3. Once your friends have accepted the invite, Spotify will create the Blend playlist, reflecting the tastes of all invitees. Pleasingly, you’ll be able to see who each song has been picked for.