Key Takeaways
- Cleanify can clean up explicit playlists by replacing cursing with clean versions.
- The Explicitify Playlist option adds explicit versions of clean songs if they exist on Spotify.
- Cleanify needs access to your Spotify account, and may freeze at times, so it isn’t perfect.
As user-friendly as Spotify is, unless you keep a close eye on your liked songs, saved albums, and curated playlists, things can get out of hand quickly. Therefore, third-party Spotify tools are worth exploring. This one, called Cleanify, specializes in cleaning up explicit playlists.
What Can Cleanify Do Exactly?
Cleanify is a web app that can do three things: clean up explicit playlists, make clean playlists explicit, and delete playlists from Spotify. The last option is somewhat unnecessary, as it’s easy to delete playlists from within Spotify itself, so let’s focus on the other two options.
The first option, and the one you’re most likely to use, is “Cleanify Playlist”. This, as the name suggests, cleans up a playlist, replacing any songs that contain cursing with their clean versions (if available). The idea is to ensure a particular playlist is family-friendly, allowing you to play your previously curse-laden playlist in front of kids, whether they’re yours or other people’s.
The second option, whose name reveals its mission, is “Explicitify Playlist”. This does the exact opposite of the Cleanify option, finding explicit versions of any clean songs you have in a playlist. The use case here is less obvious, though, with the only benefit being the ability to play the version the artist intended to be consumed, with the cursing intact.
How to Use Cleanify to Clean Up Playlists
To clean up a Spotify playlist (or make one explicit) using Cleanify, first, navigate to Cleanify. Then, you’ll need to log in to your Spotify account to grant the app access to manipulate your playlists.
Cleanify will then fetch your playlists from Spotify and list them in the left-hand sidebar. You need to select one and then choose what you want to do with it, with the options “Cleanify,” “Explicitify,” and “Delete.”
After you have chosen your preferred option, Cleanify will do its thing, either cleaning up, making it explicit, or deleting the playlist you selected. You’ll still have some options to explore afterward, but ultimately, this is the limit of Cleanify’s abilities.
Whichever option you choose, the new playlist will be added to Spotify with either “Explicit” or “All Clean” in brackets to prevent confusion.
Things to Note When Using Cleanify
This Spotify tool is likely to be most useful for people who listen to songs that cross genres. For example, rap and R&B songs usually have two versions released: the original for mature fans and a more mainstream version that all ages can listen to. It should be noted that, even without Cleanify, Spotify lets you filter out explicit songs.
The option to Explicitify a playlist isn’t particularly useful. For most playlists, you’ll already have a mix of explicit and non-explicit songs, and this will only replace clean versions with explicit versions if it can find any. Which, in most cases, it won’t.
Like most third-party Spotify tools, Cleanify requires access to your Spotify account. So, be sure to heed the warning when logging into Spotify using Cleanify. And if you stop using Cleanify, be sure to revoke its access to your Spotify account.
On a couple of occasions while writing this article, Cleanify froze up for me, with the app stuck “Fetching Playlists” or “Fetching Tracks From Playlists”. This rendered the app unusable, and no amount of reloading or signing out and then back in again fixed the problem. Whatever the cause, you’ll need to wait for Cleanify to start working again before fixing any playlists.
In conclusion, Cleanify isn’t perfect, but it’s a nice little tool if and when you need to add or remove cursing from a Spotify playlist.