Spotify, the much talked-about music streaming service, has today launched a new feature aimed at filtering out bad music for discerning listeners. The feature, called ‘Airplay Floods’, uses a revolutionary musical genome identifier to weed out bad records from albums and playlists in the Spotify catalogue. It has already been nicknamed the ‘crap filter’.

Spotiguide was the first media outlet to see the new feature. In tests, turning on the Airplay Floods function removed tracks such as The Cheeky Song (Touch My Bum) by The Cheeky Girls and Candle in the Wind 1997 by Elton John from the Spotify catalogue. Spotify programmers refused to reveal exactly how the patented method to identify the ‘DNA’ of bad music works. However, despite repeated attempts, Spotiguide was unable to play Everything I Do (I Do It For You) by Bryan Adams or Believe by Cher while the crap filter was active.

‘Airplay Floods is a game-changing feature,’ said Orla Filop, a spokeswoman for the Stockholm-based company. ‘Spotify has already revolutionised the way people listen to music. Now it will revolutionise the type of music they listen to, greatly reducing the amount of rubbish their ears are subjected to.’

Although welcomed by many Spotify users, the new feature has already been criticised by anti-censorship groups who claim that the company should not remove listeners’ rights to listen to bad music.

‘The Airplay Floods feature is an attack against freedom of choice,’ read a statement from anti-censorship group ADF. ‘Tastes vary, and one man’s Beethoven is another man’s B*Witched. If people want to listen to Black Lace or Billie Ray Cyrus, then they should be allowed to do so in peace without fear of censorship of mockery.’

Some Spotify users have also reacted angrily. An early comment on the Spotify blog from user Flair Pool read, ‘hey IDIOTS coz i LIKE sexbomb by tom jones n listen 2 it every day n u have RUINED spotify cos now I cannot listen to sex bomb by tom jone you IDIOTS (sic).’

The feature is permanently activated for Spotify Free users, meaning that they will no longer be able to listen to tracks such as Mr Blobby by Mr Blobby or Anyone Can Fall In Love by Anita Dobson. Spotify Premium users can toggle the Airplay Floods feature on and off using the F9 key.

What do you think of the new Airplay Floods feature? Post a comment and let us know.