Spotify offers multiple privacy features to help you control who can see your listening activity. Whether you want to hide your listening habits temporarily or make your playlists completely private, you can manage them directly on Spotify.
If you still have no idea how to adjust the settings, this guide will help you, which covers everything you need to know about private sessions, playlist privacy, account security, and additional privacy measures to ensure a secure listening experience.
You May Also Like:
- What Is Spotify Private Listening?
- How to Enable Private Sessions on Spotify
- How to Make Spotify Playlist Private
- Can I Also Make Account Private on Spotify?
- Advanced Privacy Settings to Ensure Your Spotify Security
- Permanent Solution: Download Spotify Music Offline
- FAQs of Spotify Private Listening
- Conclusion
What Is Spotify Private Listening?
Generally, Spotify's private listening temporarily hides your music activity from others, including Private Sessions and Private Playlists.
1. Private Sessions
Private sessions temporarily hide your real-time listening activity from followers. When enabled:
- Currently playing tracks won't appear in Friend Activity
- No notifications are sent about what you're streaming
Therefore, it's ideal for when you want to explore new genres without judgment or just don't want to share your Spotify activities.
2. Private Playlists
Private Playlists keep specific collections hidden from public view. When your Spotify playlists are private:
- Won't appear in your public profile
- Can't be discovered through search
With the feature, you can enjoy truly personal curation and an exclusive experience.
So, how to turn on private listening on Spotify to improve your Spotify Music experience? Just keep reading and follow the simple guides.
How to Enable Private Sessions on Spotify
You can turn on Spotify Private sessions on both desktop and mobile apps.
On Windows/Mac
Launch Spotify and click your profile picture (top-right corner).
Select "Settings" from the dropdown menu.
Scroll down to the "Social" section.
Toggle "Private Session" to the ON position.
A blue padlock icon will appear near your profile picture indicating active privacy.
On iOS/Android
Open the Spotify app and tap "Home".
Tap the gear icon (Settings) at the top-right corner.
Select "Social" under the "Privacy" section.
Toggle "Private Session" to enable.
The same blue padlock will appear in your mobile app.
Notes:
- Spotify web player doesn't provide the private sessions feature.
- Sessions automatically expire after 6 hours of inactivity.
- You'll need to manually reactivate for continued privacy.
How to Make Spotify Playlist Private
If you want to keep your Spotify playlists exclusive, the following steps will help you.
Navigate to "Your Library" in the left sidebar (desktop) or bottom bar (mobile).
Locate the playlist you want to make private.
Click the three-dot menu (⋯) next to the playlist name.
Select "Make Private" from the dropdown options.
The playlist will immediately disappear from public view.
Once you successfully make the playlist private, it won't appear in the search results and you cannot add the playlist collaborators. But the private playlist is still able to be shared via a direct link.
Note: Unlike private sessions, private playlists can be set on the Spotify web player.
Can I Also Make Account Private on Spotify?
While Spotify doesn’t offer a fully private account (like Instagram’s "private profile" option), you can still limit visibility of your account information.
- Disable Listening Activity: Settings > Social > Turn off "Share my listening activity".
When enabled, the song you are listening to won't appear in Friend Activity, and your friend will not know the music you are playing on Spotify. But the played music will still be recorded in the Recently Played list.
- Social Media Disconnect: Settings > Social > Disconnect Facebook/other integrations.
When you disconnect social media from your Spotify account, you can only use email or phone number to log in to Spotify, and your friends won't receive any Spotify activities from you on social media.
- Profile Customization: Edit display name and profile picture for reduced recognition.
The setting may also hide your identity in Spotify Wrapped.
Advanced Privacy Settings to Ensure Your Spotify Security
To value the Spotify account and create a wonderful Spotify Music enjoyment for your own, you can also pay attention to the following items:
1. Password Management:
- Use a unique, complex password.
- Change credentials every 3-6 months.
- Enable two-factor authentication if available.
2. Connected Apps Audit:
- Regularly review authorized third-party apps.
- Revoke access for unused services.
- Monitor for suspicious connections.
3. Session Management:
- Log out of unused devices.
- Use "Sign Out Everywhere" if the device is lost/stolen.
- Check login history for anomalies.
Permanent Solution: Download Spotify Music Offline
Frequently adjusting the private settings on Spotify can be bothersome, and you may always be worrying about leaking personal information via Spotify. Therefore, to keep your Spotify songs enjoyment a totally exclusive activity, downloading your favorite music from Spotify to local device is a good choice. Here, we recommend that you choose TuneFab Spotify Music Converter.
TuneFab Spotify Music Converter performs well in terms of downloading Spotify items offline with original quality and ID3 tags preserved, which makes your listening experience the same as using Spotify online. And as you are playing the songs offline, there's no way your listening activities will be shared or appear on any platform unexpectedly. Besides, to ease your downloading operation, TuneFab also offers a batch download feature and supports downloading specific Spotify playlists directly.
Key Features of TuneFab Spotify Music Converter:
- Removes all streaming-related privacy concerns.
- Converts Spotify content to universal formats (MP3, FLAC, etc.) to be compatible with different devices.
- Offers 35X faster speed with GPU acceleration to minimize downloading time.
- Provides one-stop service to help you convert music from other platforms like Apple Music, YouTube Music, etc.
- Works without a Premium subscription to the music platforms.
Here's how to download Spotify music for offline listening with TuneFab:
Step 1. Download and install the versatile music converter and launch it. Choose Spotify on the page.
Step 2. Log in to your Spotify account through the interface. Then, through drag-and-drop, you can select the tracks/playlists/albums to convert to the converting list.
Step 3. Customize the output formats and quality settings. TuneFab Spotify Music Converter supports the original output quality to ensure your listening experience.
Step 4. Click "Convert All" and wait for the conversion to finish. Then, you can check the tracks in the local folder and enjoy the songs in a truly private way!
FAQs of Spotify Private Listening
Q1. Does Private Listening Affect Spotify Wrapped?
Yes. When you enable Private Session on Spotify, your listening activity is not recorded for Spotify Wrapped, which means songs played during this time will not contribute to your yearly stats. If you frequently use Private Session, your Wrapped results may not fully reflect your listening habits.
Q2. Does private mode affect artist royalties?
No, artists still receive normal royalty payments for streams in private mode. Only the social sharing aspects are disabled.
Q: Are there any limits to how many playlists I can make private?
No, you can make all of your playlists private if desired. There's no numerical limit to Spotify private playlists.
Conclusion
Now you have learned how to make your Spotify listening private and can better manage your Spotify activities. Remember that no single solution offers perfect privacy, so combining these methods provides the most comprehensive protection for your listening habits and musical preferences.
And if you want a permanent method that only requires one adjustment, TuneFab Spotify Music Converter will be the best choice. It will turn all your music-playing activities the offline ones!
