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Filters

Instrumentalness

Needs the Plus or Pro plan. The Instrumentalness filter keeps the tracks whose instrumentalness score sits inside a range you set.

What it matches

Instrumentalness is a score from 0% to 100% that predicts whether a track has no vocals. The higher the score, the less likely the track contains vocal content. "Ooh" and "aah" sounds count as instrumental; rap and spoken words count as vocals, so those tracks score low.

The filter compares each track's score with your range and keeps the track when the score is inside it, both ends included.

Spotify's own guidance is that a score above 50% is a strong sign the track is instrumental, and that confidence grows as the score gets closer to 100%. Tracks with a few sung lines, or with sparse vocals over long instrumental passages, land in the middle.

Where the data comes from

The score is part of Spotify's audio analysis of the recording. Playlistation reads it from Spotify the first time a track is checked and stores it for later updates.

Spotify has no analysis for every track. When it has none, the track has no instrumentalness score and the filter treats it as not matching: the track stays out of the playlist whatever range you set.

Operators and values

The filter has one operator, Between, so the dialog shows no operator card. You set a minimum and a maximum on a slider with two handles, from 0% to 100%, in steps of 5. A new Instrumentalness filter starts at 25% to 75%.

The Instrumentalness filter dialog with its two-handle slider
Left is vocals, right is instrumental.

The sentence collapses at the ends of the scale:

  • Minimum at 0: "The track instrumentalness is at most 20%".
  • Maximum at 100: "The track instrumentalness is at least 50%".
  • Anything else: "The track instrumentalness is between 25% and 75%".

A slider left at 0% to 100% shows the warning "With the current settings, all of the tracks will match this filter".

Examples

  • The track instrumentalness is at least 50%. Music to work to, with nobody talking over your thoughts.
  • The track instrumentalness is at most 20% and The track language is one of Spanish. Songs with vocals in Spanish.
  • The track instrumentalness is at least 50% and The track BPM is at most 100 and The track energy is at most 40%. Slow, calm instrumentals for sleep.
  • The track instrumentalness is at least 50% and The track acousticness is at least 60%. Classical guitar, solo piano, acoustic ambient.

Things to know

  • The Language filter cannot see instrumentals: no lyrics, no language. This filter is the way to collect them.
  • Post-rock and electronic music with sparse vocals sit around 30% to 50%. If an instrumental playlist looks thin, lower the minimum to 30% and check the edge cases in the track list at the bottom of the page: expanding a track shows "The Instrumentalness score is 42%".
  • The opposite case exists too: a song with a long instrumental intro can score in the middle and fall on either side of your threshold.
  • On the Free plan the filter is locked in the filter picker. See Plans and billing.
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