As it seems that Sonos goes out and gets meta data for songs in the Library, is it possible to have a "kid friendly" setting to filter out songs that are known to have explicit lyrics.
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Hello, Sonos does not currently have a way to filter out explicit songs or activate parental controls. However, if this is something you'd like to see from Sonos in the future, I can change this topic to an Idea thread so others can comment and +1 a request for such a feature.
Ryan, why aren't you guys doing this? We'll be dropping soon as we can't listen to top tracks.... Or anything else with my young kids. The only thing holding me back from switching to another provider is that they don't offer the filtering. As soon as they do, I'm gone from spotify...
Demand the Apis from spotify to filter this garbage content. They already do this in their stand alone app.
For us to continue to utilize our sonos system and Rhapsody this is a must. I can't believe you currently do not offer this. We should be able to play the top charts without having to run to the source to skip the songs that are completely inappropriate to play with children and are certainly offensive to the over 40 crowd. Ridiculous this should have been a no brainer as part of the software design.
I'd also like to see a content filtering solution. I have several songs in my library that I enjoy, but I do not want my children to access. If I could either password protect a portion of my library or use some feature on Sonos that hides the explicit content from the little ones but allows me to access it, that would solve my problem. If the key terms "parental filter" or adult content filter were added to this, I am guessing that it would get more people responding to the "me too" button above. This would be a highly valuable feature for Sonos to provide to its loyal customers. Thank you.
I'm confused why this is a merged topic when the only thing the requests have in common is the intent to scrub out explicit lyrics. The request to have a filter for Spotify, Pandora, or Rhapsody is an issue of the system being programmed to recognize and block explicit song titles, which would require Sonos to develop a database of explicit songs and would require that the system connect with this database and scrub it's content. This programming could/should certainly overlap with scrubbing the Sonos user's song library. However, it seems like there can be a separate and easy fix released from Sonos that would allow the user to add a tag to their personal library songs to label them as explicit and screen them from younger/unauthorized users. Sonos, is this user controlled feature not a pretty simple request, comparatively?
To me, this should be left up to individual services to provide, not the hardware makers. Google and Slacker are two music services that both provide explicit language filters in their radio services already. Log into the web player for both services, go to the settings, and there is a checkbox to block explicit songs in Radio.
Music services KNOW what songs are explicit and what aren't (based on the information they receive from the record labels, which may not always be correct, so an occasional song might get through). That information may not always be passed to Sonos. So even if Sonos were to implement an explicit filter of some sort, if a service didn't provide that info to Sonos those songs may still get played.
As far as your own music library... Well if you download it, I'd say that's on you, and don't think Sonos should "police" your own music library.
Music services KNOW what songs are explicit and what aren't (based on the information they receive from the record labels, which may not always be correct, so an occasional song might get through). That information may not always be passed to Sonos. So even if Sonos were to implement an explicit filter of some sort, if a service didn't provide that info to Sonos those songs may still get played.
As far as your own music library... Well if you download it, I'd say that's on you, and don't think Sonos should "police" your own music library.
Spotify exposes the APIs for Sonos to create the App. I would be very surprised if the APIs did not provide access to explicit content information....and if they didn't, I would again think that it would be a bit of a no brainer for Spotify to be able to add that information. My guess would be that Sonos doesn't want to invest the time/money into adding the filtering functionality within their app.
Music services KNOW what songs are explicit and what aren't (based on the information they receive from the record labels, which may not always be correct, so an occasional song might get through). That information may not always be passed to Sonos. So even if Sonos were to implement an explicit filter of some sort, if a service didn't provide that info to Sonos those songs may still get played.
As far as your own music library... Well if you download it, I'd say that's on you, and don't think Sonos should "police" your own music library.
This is the reason the music library and the music services issue should not be linked into one idea thread.
MikeV, I respectfully disagree with your comment. I have an extensive music collection, some of which is only appropriate for adults. That is quite normal. You look like a young man, so perhaps you have not yet faced this parenting dilemma.
I do not use services because my personal library is so extensive. Sonos is a fantastic system, and I had no problem spending a pretty penny to purchase and set up the 6 zones and 2 Sonos controllers that I currently have in my house. (I didn't even have a problem dishing out more cash to replace 4 devices that were fried in a recent lightening storm.) However, since we have paid so much for the Sonos system, I firmly believe we have the right to request support from Sonos for useful and needed features.
If my wife and I want to listen to explicit songs that we enjoy after the kids go to bed, we shouldn't have to go update our library to include our explicit song folder and then remember to remove that folder from the library before the kids get up in the morning. The simplicity of installing a parental control that can be toggled on and off in the user settings should be an easy software solution from Sonos, and it could be accompanied by a PIN password to either gain control of "explicit" tagged files or simply gain control of a library folder that is earmarked for those explicit music files.
Actually, Sonos has it's own API for their Music Partners to code to, not the other way around.
http://musicpartners.sonos.com/?q=node/21
Spotify is a bit of an exception, because it uses a different type of network, and the interface was a joint (and sometimes contentious) effort between the two parties. In addition, since the announcement of Spotify Connect, there seems to be less and less effort to update the Sonos app with new features (i.e. Spotify Radio).
Thanks for clarification. It's interesting though that if you look at some of these Music Service Apps (Spotify, Rhapsody and Napster - before joining Rhapsody), they're identical in terms of functionality and look and feel. Which tells me that Sonos is limiting what these services can provide.
Not really. Google Play Music certainly has many more functions than either Spotify or Rhapsody, including Cloud based music and extensive radio features. MOG had radio services for artist and like-artists, Pre-Rhapsody Napster had automatic playlist generation, which is very unique. So I'm not sure we can pin the lack of Spotify services like Spotify Radio on a limited API.
That's great that individual services have their own filter.
My question is how do I partition out explicit songs that are part of my Sonos library? If I want to be able to listen to mature songs when the kids are not around, then those same songs are always available to my kids, and I don't want that. There needs to be a way to partition portions of the library that are mature or to password protect explicit songs.
Is anybody at Sonos listening?
My question is how do I partition out explicit songs that are part of my Sonos library? If I want to be able to listen to mature songs when the kids are not around, then those same songs are always available to my kids, and I don't want that. There needs to be a way to partition portions of the library that are mature or to password protect explicit songs.
Is anybody at Sonos listening?
I have found Songza has many radio edit options under their "Children genre" . This is working for now.
love our sonos. Could not go without!!!
love our sonos. Could not go without!!!
I have found that Songza has many radio edit/ clean lyric / kid friendly options under their "Children genre". That has solved our problem for now.
I love our sonos system. I don't think I could give it up. I know my children are hooked.
Thanks!
I love our sonos system. I don't think I could give it up. I know my children are hooked.
Thanks!
Really need this, I don't want to go to Napster or Spotify to enable/disable this type of filter when the kids aren't using the Sonos... the filter function is a personal choice so naysayers on censorship can ignore it.
I would REALLY like to see this feature added to Sonos. The ability to filter explicit content is needed.
So Ryan E, what is Sonos's definitive plan on this topic? Is filtering out explicit content on the product roadmap or not? If yes, what are the timelines?
If product management is basing their decisions solely on how many "Likes" there are on a particular "idea thread" (this one has 22 as of the time of this post) I would say that this is not representative of the whole Sonos customer population. How many customers want this feature (filtering out explicit content) but have no idea about the "idea thread" process? You could be in a situation where 85% of your customers want this but only 22 people searched long enough and were so inclined as to write a post here. Bottom line is that customers want to control content in their homes and the right thing to do is to provide that control.
I'm looking forward to hearing the definitive plan.
Thank you.
If product management is basing their decisions solely on how many "Likes" there are on a particular "idea thread" (this one has 22 as of the time of this post) I would say that this is not representative of the whole Sonos customer population. How many customers want this feature (filtering out explicit content) but have no idea about the "idea thread" process? You could be in a situation where 85% of your customers want this but only 22 people searched long enough and were so inclined as to write a post here. Bottom line is that customers want to control content in their homes and the right thing to do is to provide that control.
I'm looking forward to hearing the definitive plan.
Thank you.
+1. My own library is my problem, but I need the ability to block from all Music Services, particularly the 'Flow' on Deezer.
+1
First wanna say, WOW! I love the whole Sonos experience. We currently own 2 "Play 5" and 4 "Play 1". We will invents ally grow our collection to Play bar and 2 "Play 3".
On that note, I wish there was an option to choose wether some station can include/exclude "explicit content". I'm listening to a Songza station that has explicit I content every other song. I love Songza and Pandora but when my kids are around, I wish I could exclude explicit content.
Thank you and looking forward to be able to link the speakers wirelessly to me outdoor projector....
I would rather not having Sonos spend precious resources on this issue. Parental responsibilities should not be laid upon Sonos.
I disagree, they sell a service when you buy the hardware. I believe this service could & should offer much more functionality, other streaming media services provide adult content filtering. I'd like to see devices locked to certain user accounts too...i.e. proper zone controls, hardware is great, software feels neglected.
I also disagree with Beynym.
Yes parental responsibilities are mine, which is why I use the 'filter explicit' features directly on the music services I use. It's also not just about parental responsibilities, it extends to having friends over and often even when I'm by myself. I'm just asking that those same features that generally already exist, are made available in the Sonos software. It shouldn't take a huge amount of resources, particularly if the filters are already exposed in the APIs of the various services.
+1 to David Fisher.. Software is improving, but needs more work.
Yes parental responsibilities are mine, which is why I use the 'filter explicit' features directly on the music services I use. It's also not just about parental responsibilities, it extends to having friends over and often even when I'm by myself. I'm just asking that those same features that generally already exist, are made available in the Sonos software. It shouldn't take a huge amount of resources, particularly if the filters are already exposed in the APIs of the various services.
+1 to David Fisher.. Software is improving, but needs more work.
As an individual with no kids, I would probably agree with you. However, as a mother of three children, I'm inclined to disagree. I understand as parents we have responsibilities. What inspired me to buy Sonos system in the first place is to introduce music in the household to steer kids away from TV and video games. Get them inspired by past and current CULTURE. There are great songs out there that have both non-explicit and explicit versions. I'm not one to want my kids to listen to Christian music(no offense to religious listeners) non stop, but I don't feel it is necessary to have songs with cursing in it. For example, I was listening to the 90's era on Songza (great flash back, songs represented the era well) but lots of them had cursing in it. It sucked to have to skip over the songs and I know most of those songs had radio versions. The point of listening to music is to stream it like a radio without commercials. Pandora and Sonza have the option, I don't think it would take much to implement the same idea in the Sonos system. We live in a world that has limited set standards. As parents we are responsible to teach our kids right and wrong. We are responsible to teach them respect, curtesy, discipline, integrity, etc. but each industry, music, TV, video games, and movies need to do there part too. I'm not saying music should be rated like movies but a simple option to turn on/off explicit I content. That's just my individual opinion 😉
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