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Filters

Artist genre

The Artist genre filter keeps or drops tracks by the genres Spotify assigns to their artists. Available on every plan.

What it matches

Spotify does not tag tracks with genres. It tags artists, with specific labels such as "french hip hop", "indie rock" or "melodic techno". The filter gathers the genres of every artist credited on a track into one list and compares it with the genres you picked.

  • Any of keeps a track when at least one of its artists' genres is in your list.
  • None of drops a track when any of them is.

Because the genres are the artist's, every track by that artist inherits the same labels. A quiet ballad by a metal band is still "metal" for this filter. A collaboration between a pop artist and a rap artist carries both artists' genres.

Where the data comes from

The genre labels on each artist's Spotify page. Playlistation loads an artist's page the first time it needs it and keeps that copy for later playlist updates.

Operators and values

Pick Any of ("Keeps tracks whose artist is tagged with any of these genres") or None of ("Removes tracks whose artist is tagged with any of these genres"), then one or more genres. Labels are exact: "indie rock" does not include "rock", and "rock" does not include "indie rock". Pick every label you mean.

The genre picker ("Type a genre or an artist name") searches two things at once: the genre labels Playlistation has already met, and Spotify artists matching what you typed. An artist result shows that artist's genres, and you click a genre to add it. Before you type, the picker offers the top genres of your library from the Stats page.

The dialog capitalizes labels in the list; the filter sentence shows them the way Spotify writes them, in lower case.

The Artist genre filter dialog with the Any of card selected and a genre search showing an artist and their genres
Typing an artist's name lists their genres, one click each to add.

Examples

  • The track artist is tagged with one of rock, alternative rock, indie rock. A broad rock playlist. Spotify's rock labels are many, so several are needed to cover most artists.
  • The track artist is tagged with one of rap, hip hop, french hip hop and The track language is one of French. French rap only. The genre alone lets English-language rap in; the Language filter narrows it.
  • The track artist is tagged with none of christmas. Your whole library minus the December songs.
  • The track artist is tagged with one of techno and Release date: The 2020s (2020–2029). Recent techno.

Things to know

  • Some artists have no genres on Spotify. Their tracks never match "Any of", whatever you pick, and always pass "None of".
  • Genre labels are per artist, so you cannot separate one artist's styles with this filter. Combine it with Release date or an audio filter instead.
  • The list of genres you can search grows as artists are searched and libraries are analyzed. If you cannot find a label, type the artist's name instead.
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