Filter for explicit songs from the music library / services


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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43 replies

Userlevel 7
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Your welcome!
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I think returning your unit is a good plan.
Thank you Chris. You are such a valuable contributor of this forum. Your responses help me make this decision. It was very hard though. Hope you continue to entertain people on this forum and help sonos.
Userlevel 7
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I think returning your unit is a good plan.
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I spoke to apple and they gave me direct line to Tim Cook on this. He said he will talk to Sonos. Just kidding. have you ever called a help line? Do you know what they would say about this?

For consumers:
Botom line is: I am trying to replace my current wireless speaker with sonos and I cant. If I do I will have to delete my current playlists and choose songs that are not explicit. IMHO, sonos is not for parents with young kids who are currently using apple music.
Userlevel 5
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And what did Apple say about it when you contacted them, after all it is their service. Nothing to do with Sonos.
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I can always return the unit, instead I am atleast spending my valuable time to find a solution.
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I have all rights to post if I am not satisfied with the solution.
Let me explain how big of problem this is: If you create a playlist in apple music with a song that has explicit content but are suppressed when played from apple music interface. Now after installing sonos same playlist shows up on sonos interface and when you play this it is all explicit. Only way to fix is to go over all the playlists that I have and remove songs that have explicit content. This is not possible.

This thread is not really about your problem with Apple Music. It is more about filtering your local music library. It's also several years old. Stop shotgunning off-topic posts into every thread that mentions filtering. As I said in the other thread where people are trying to help you out, reel it in a little bit.
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Let me explain how big of problem this is: If you create a playlist in apple music with a song that has explicit content but are suppressed when played from apple music interface. Now after installing sonos same playlist shows up on sonos interface and when you play this it is all explicit. Only way to fix is to go over all the playlists that I have and remove songs that have explicit content. This is not possible.
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After using sonos I conveyed to many of my friends to try sonos. But I guess I have to call them back and say not to buy this.
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I use apple music among my family members since it has an ability to provide "clean" songs. Bought sonos to replace my bluetooth speaker at home. I was surprised to see that if you play an apple music song via sonos app then it disregards the "clean" content play back and it play with explicit content. Songs that are not played on public radios are excluded from apple music content but sonos completely ignores that. I am returning my sonos sound bar. Shame on Sonos. Three years old thread but no action from sonos.
Where can i vote for a filter on explicit language? Especially for Spotify.
Userlevel 5
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[quote=Robert_67][quote=Beynym]I would rather not having Sonos spend precious resources on this issue. Parental responsibilities should not be laid upon Sonos.[/quote

Why should I have to delete songs from my music library that I enjoy at the right time and situation just to ensure that my Sonos system no longer displays these song titles to my kids?

Sonos - You need to listen, and you need to give your entire customer base consideration for such a critical feature.[/quote]

Conversely, why should anyone else give a flying fig that you have content on your system you deem to be inappropriate for your children. Your library is entirely your responsibility and the picture you try to paint of being a poor victim of your own choices really does not wash.

Remove your offensive content to another device and play it through a line in or other option. Your censor problem solved in an instant.
Userlevel 7
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Sonos - This is a much needed feature for many users.

Please can you provide us with an update.


Hi OmegaJJH,

We don't have any updates to share right now about adding an explicit content filter. We'll log your interest though.
Userlevel 1
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Sonos - This is a much needed feature for many users.

Please can you provide us with an update.
Userlevel 1
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To me, this should be left up to individual services to provide, not the hardware makers..

The music services do have settings to filter content but Sonos does not respect the settings. I have the Google Play Music setting to block explicit lyrics but Sonos plays the explicit content anyway.

SUCKS BIG TIME!

SONOS - you need to fix this.
I would rather not having Sonos spend precious resources on this issue. Parental responsibilities should not be laid upon Sonos.
No offense, Benhym, but that is an ignorant statement, and I cannot even believe that the comment garnered 26 "likes" here on the forum! [Edit - it looks like his comment did not receive any likes.  He has received 26 total likes from his 115 total posts.  My bad.]

I have over 15,000 songs in my personal music library, so I do not need or use any of the music services that Sonos supports.  However, I would never go so far as to say Sonos should not spend "precious resources" on an issue related to services that so many people clearly want and use.  Of course Sonos should support services that it users want, after all we all spent a lot of hard earned money on purchasing their product.

I believe there is clearly a critical mass of users who want, desire, and need parental controls on the Sonos system.  I like to occasionally relive my glory days and listen to explicit songs.  I wait until appropriate times with appropriately mature people before doing so.  However, with the current Sonos supported features, my 7 year old can scroll through the same library and see ALL of my song titles.  I don't want my 7 year old even reading "F*ck the Police", much less playing it! 

Why should I have to delete songs from my music library that I enjoy at the right time and situation just to ensure that my Sonos system no longer displays these song titles to my kids?

Sonos - You need to listen, and you need to give your entire customer base consideration for such a critical feature.
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!!!

True, but the settings does not translate to Sonos, right?
I would rather not having Sonos spend precious resources on this issue. Parental responsibilities should not be laid upon Sonos.
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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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.
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.
Userlevel 7
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I would rather not having Sonos spend precious resources on this issue. Parental responsibilities should not be laid upon Sonos.
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.
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....
Userlevel 6
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Adding the ability to block explicit lyrics would make Sonos perfect.  
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+1. My own library is my problem, but I need the ability to block from all Music Services, particularly the 'Flow' on Deezer.