I ditched YouTube Music for Spotify after it added this excellent feature

Published Sep 25, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT My partner loves her Spotify Platinum subscription because of the AI DJ feature. She loves the music it recommends, but I never liked the idea of a robotic voice interrupting my listening, no matter how good the music. This was the single biggest reason I didn't switch to Spotify Platinum, despite my partner's repeated praise for the AI DJ feature and other exclusive benefits. I was happy with YouTube Music because it was a better overall value, since I didn't buy it separately. A YouTube Music subscription is bundled with YouTube Premium. I still think it's a better value for most people, but that is no longer enough to keep me in its fold, because I finally have a more compelling reason to switch. I ditched YouTube Music after I found this excellent feature on Spotify: the ability to exclude kids' music from the taste profile. YouTube Music knows my taste in music well enough But it has a serious loophole that can ruin recommendations I've used YouTube Music for years, and it knows my taste in music better than any other music streaming platform. I won't make a sweeping statement and call its recommendation engine the best in the world because I know people who weren't happy with YouTube Music's recommendations. Interestingly, many of them were parents, and I noticed the pattern only after becoming a parent myself. My YouTube Music recommendations started going downhill. But unlike many of my friends, I could easily spot the reason. YouTube Music doesn't have a true incognito mode like the main YouTube app, but it does let you stop the app from changing your recommendations. You can do that from the Privacy & data page in the YouTube Music app. When I went on a fun group outing with my friends, I always enabled the Pause search history toggle on the Privacy & data page. This is the only way to play music on request without changing the recommendations. While this works, it's annoying to do it repeatedly every day. Many of my friends who are now parents share the same frustration with YouTube Music. It's not practically possible to enable the Pause search history toggle every time before you play nursery rhymes for your kids. You'll make that mistake at least a couple of times, and that's enough to ruin your YouTube Music recommendations. I came to terms with it and accepted it as normal, until Spotify introduced the option to exclude kids' music from the taste profile. I switched to it instantly because the feature solved a genuine everyday problem for me. Spotify's solution isn't an incognito button, but something smarter that protects recommendations. I can finally play nursery rhymes without messing up my Spotify recommendations Everyone should turn the toggle off Spotify has something called Private Session that stops your music-listening activity from influencing recommendations. But like YouTube Music's Pause search history toggle, it isn't a practical solution for everyday use, like playing kids' music. I'm glad Spotify understood this and launched a new toggle called Include kids and family music in taste profile. It stays enabled by default in the Spotify settings, so you need to turn it off for the change to take effect. When you switch off the Include kids and family music in taste profile toggle, Spotify makes sure that kids and family music you or your kids streamed can't influence your recommendations. This means all your personalized playlists, including Discover Weekly, Daily Mix, and Spotify Wrapped, will play tracks only for you. It takes up to 48 hours to fix your personalized recommendations. It applies retroactively, so the kids' music I've played doesn't impact my personalized playlists. Here is how I switched off the Include kids and family music in taste profile toggle. Open the Spotify app on your phone. Go to Settings. Tap Content and display. Turn off the Include children and family music in taste profile toggle. That's all you do. The toggle is available to everyone using Spotify on mobile, including non-Premium users. I'm not going back to YouTube Music anytime soon The ability to exclude kids' music isn't the only personalization tool that I've become a fan of. Spotify also lets you exclude a specific song or playlist from your taste profile. I use this feature when I listen to my favorite guilty-pleasure songs. Those two options are always there, making it feel like I'm actively engaged with the app to improve the recommendations. As a user, I like their participatory nature, and the new kids' music toggle is the icing on the cake. Even if YouTube Music introduces all these features right now, I won't go back to it anytime soon, at least not before my Spotify Premium ends.