Use of Clean/Explicit Data for Smart Playlist

Allyn71 wrote:

How is it still not possible to use the clean/Explicit tag info in smart playlist? Any tag/song data should be able to be used in a smart filter.

Allyn,

As fellow users, we cannot speculate on why Apple chooses not to include certain features.

You can make a suggestion directly to Apple at the Feedback page:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

Allyn71 wrote:

How is it still not possible to use the clean/Explicit tag info in smart playlist?

The tag?

As far as I know there is no agreed tag for "explicit".

You might think that yours was a simple request, but it's far from it. I assume that you are using your Smart Playlist rules to look for the word "explicit" in one of the tags, but that your frustration is that either the word is missing, or it's in another tag to the one you're looking in. So when you state:

To have to manually edit each song is just crazy in 2019.

... do you mean that you have to check any song that is explicit and add the word to your preferred tag? I assume that you have worked out that if you manually add the word "explicit" to your preferred tag, that you can then use it in Smart Playlist rules so that you achieve what you want to do (exclude it), even though you have to add the word? (It's not clear to me that you have, which is why I ask.)

Looking at the issue generally, don't forget, a tag specifically for explicit would have to be agreed by everyone who writes software for editing audio files, as well as everyone who uses that software to create tags for a piece of music.

Do the companies that produce music for Lady Gaga, Radiohead, Oasis, The Beatles, etc. etc. all use the same software for creating the tags in their digital music? If not, then it means the authors of every piece of relevant software need to agree - and then update, their software to add a new tag so that everyone can make use of it. Even if they do, what about non-mainstream artists, who self release their music, possibly using software such as Audacity, GarageBand, etc. (as opposed to professional software)?

Not only do they all need to have software that can write to a newly created "explicit" tag, but the individuals using it need to actually use it, or else, what's the point? Some musicians, music companies and fans just wouldn't bother. (Fans have been known to submit song information to Gracenote {as used by iTunes for CDs} in the past.) Then, software that recognises tags also needs to be compliant; that includes iTunes, Gracenote, Windows Media player etc. etc.

It's not just iTunes (Apple) either. I have five songs in my iTunes Library marked as explicit that I purchased from Amazon. Of those, only one has the word explicit in the song title. The other four all have the word "explicit" in the album title, even though the song is not explicit. This means that every song on the album is noted as explicit, even the instrumental track, which I'm listening to while I write this; it has a vocal chorus, but no explicit words. Even the full vocal version is not explicit as far as I'm aware (and I know the song fairly well). None of my five songs has the word "explicit" in any of the other tags that iTunes or my music cataloguing database can see.

In fact, looking at the particular artist I mentioned above, I'm aware of two of their albums that have one track on each that is marked as explicit. On one song (the explicit one)*, Amazon UK has the word "explicit" in the song title, while one has the word in the album title as well, which will affect every other track on the album. So there is a definite lack of consistency to contend with.

I'm not suggesting that you don't try Ed's suggestion of using Apple's feedback, but I think it's a hurdle that can't be jumped.

* Text edited by author after initial posting, to correct an error.