Tidal is a popular music streaming service that offers high fidelity sound quality and access to over 100 million songs. As with other streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, Tidal creates personalized playlists and radio stations based on your listening habits and artists you follow.
However, there may be times when you want to mute or block certain artists from showing up in these auto-generated playlists and stations. Here is a guide on how to mute and block artists on Tidal using various devices.
Table of Contents
Why You Might Want To Block An Artist
Here are some common reasons why you may want to block an artist on Tidal:
- The artist has been involved in a scandal or controversy that makes you no longer want to support their music
- You strongly dislike the musical style or sound of a particular artist
- An artist’s songs keep showing up too often in your personalized playlists and stations
- You want more control over the music that gets recommended to you
Whatever the reason, Tidal makes it easy to prevent artists you don’t enjoy from popping up during your listening sessions.
How To Block An Artist On Tidal
Blocking an artist on Tidal removes their music from appearing in curated playlists like My Mix and various artist, track, or genre radio stations. However, you can still manually search for and play blocked artists if you choose.
Here are the steps to block an artist:
On Mobile
- Open the Tidal app on your iPhone, Android, or tablet
- Go to the “Explore” tab
- Search for the artist you want to block
- Scroll down and tap “Artist Radio”
- Play a song by the artist, then tap the icon with a circle and slash through it
- Select “Block Artist” to confirm
On Desktop
- Go to listen.tidal.com and log in
- Search for the artist
- Click “Artist Radio” next to their name
- Play a song, then click the block icon by the playback controls
- Choose “Block Artist”
On Other Devices
- Open Tidal on your device
- Find a personalized playlist like My Mix or artist/track radio
- When a song from the artist you want to block plays, select the block icon
- Confirm if you want to block just that song or the entire artist
Once blocked, the artist should no longer appear in any Tidal-curated playlists or stations.
How To Unblock An Artist
If you change your mind later on, you can easily unblock artists and add them back to your Tidal recommendations.
On Mobile and Desktop
- Go to “Settings”
- Select “Blocked Artists”
- Find the artist you want to unblock and select “Unblock”
On Other Devices
- Go to the block icon next to a song by the artist
- Choose “Unblock Artist”
After unblocking, the artist’s songs can show up again in playlists and radio stations.
Tips for Managing Blocked Artists
- Check back periodically in “Blocked Artists” to see everyone you have muted
- Be careful not to block collaborating artists if you only intend to block the main artist
- Remember to also block tracks for one-off songs you dislike
- Blocked artists still appear in search, you just won’t hear them unexpectedly
Other Ways To Control Recommendations
In addition to blocking artists, Tidal has other ways to fine tune your recommended music:
- “Dislike” individual songs in playlists or radio to remove them
- Follow artists you do enjoy so Tidal recommends similar music
- Create your own playlists with only artists you like
- Disable/enable certain genres under “Settings”
- Frequently play artists and songs to influence recommendations
While blocking artists prevents their music from automatically playing, proactively listening to music you like also helps shape Tidal’s suggestions.
Conclusion
Being able to mute and block artists is an important control option for music streaming platforms. No one wants to keep hearing music from artists they can no longer support or simply don’t enjoy. Tidal’s blocking functionality makes it quick and straightforward to remove artists from playlists and stations tailored to your taste. Test it out next time you want to eliminate certain music from your Tidal recommendations.
