Whether you’re fed up with their music, need to take a brief break, or find them completely offensive, you can learn how to block an artist on Spotify by following our quick step-by-step tutorial.
For any additional information or other queries, please see our FAQs at the end of this article.
Note: Blocking artists only works on Spotify mobile, you cannot do this on the desktop version of the app, and any blocks you make on the mobile will only be retained there – they will not (annoyingly) translate to your account when using the desktop app.
Table of Contents
- Frequently asked questions
- What is Spotify?
- Why would I want to block an artist on Spotify?
- What happens when I block an artist on Spotify?
- Can I unblock artists I’ve previously blocked on Spotify?
- Can I block specific songs, instead of whole artists, on Spotify?
- Can I block or unblock artists on the Spotify desktop app?
- Related Posts
How to block an artist on Spotify
- Open up the Spotify app on your mobile device, and if prompted, sign in
- Locate the artist you wish to block by searching for them via the ‘Search’ icon bottom-centre, or by finding them on your homepage
- Once on the artist’s page, press the three vertical dots (Menu) in the top-right
- From the drop-down menu, tap ‘Don’t play this’ (this is what Spotify calls blocking)
- You have successfully blocked an artist on Spotify! You can repeat this process for any number of artists you wish to stop Spotify from ever playing you. To reverse the process, follow steps 1-3 again, but this time in step 4, tap ‘Allow to play this’ instead.
And there you have it! As easy as the 5 short steps above, you can block any number of disliked or overplayed artists on Spotify, and then unblock them again just as easily, when (and if) the time comes.
If you want any more information, or still have unanswered queries, please see our FAQs below.
Frequently asked questions
What is Spotify?
Spotify is one of the world’s largest, most popular, and most readily accessible music and podcast streaming services, available to users online, as a desktop PC app, and as a mobile or tablet app for Android and iOS.
Users of Spotify can enjoy limitless listening to just about any musician or artist who’s ever recorded music. You can make playlists (which you can edit and share with friends), follow artists, like songs, catch the latest albums, and stream your favourite podcasts, all on the same free-to-use app.
Spotify Premium users enjoy added benefits such as ad-free listening, and multiple device use on the one account.
Why would I want to block an artist on Spotify?
You may well want to block an artist on Spotify for any number of reasons. Perhaps you just need to take a break from listening to them, and blocking them is an effective temporary quick fix for your situation.
Maybe you find a particular artist’s music offensive, off-color, or just plain annoying, and you want to make sure you don’t have to listen to them when you don’t want to.
Whatever your reasoning, that’s why we’re here – to help you learn how to block artists for yourself so that your future listening experience is as good as can be.
What happens when I block an artist on Spotify?
The artist in question will no longer appear in Spotify-generated playlists, nor will their music play when listening to any playlists you (or someone else) has previously included them in. In effect, you’ll hear no music from this artist on Spotify (mobile app only) whilst you have said artist blocked.
Can I unblock artists I’ve previously blocked on Spotify?
Of course! All you have to do is reverse engineer our tutorial above, and instead of tapping ‘Don’t play this’, tap ‘Allow to play this’ instead
Can I block specific songs, instead of whole artists, on Spotify?
You most certainly can. To do so, navigate to the song(s) you wish to ‘block’, tap on the three dots next to it, and then from the pop-up menu, tap ‘Hide this song’. To ‘unhide’ it, repeat the process but tap ‘Hidden’ instead (or tap the minus sign to the left of the three dots on the song itself)
Can I block or unblock artists on the Spotify desktop app?
Unfortunately not. There simply seems to be no way to block artists (or songs for that matter) on Spotify’s desktop app. Likewise, any songs or artists you’ve blocked on your Spotify mobile app, will unfortunately not be blocked when you use Spotify on your desktop app next, though will continue to be on your mobile version of the app. Frustrating? Yep, we know!
