News May 16, 2018

Janelle Monáe’s new app deletes the tunes in your Spotify playlist

Image: Alexandra Gavillet

September 9th, 2014 is a day that will live in infamy for many music fans. To some, it’s the day that Apple invaded your digital privacy in an unprecedented way, while to others it’s the day that Apple gave us all a free U2 album.

However you feel about it, it showed just how easily technology can come into your music library and do its thing. Now, Janelle Monáe has humorously taken control of technology to help you hear her new album at the expense of your Spotify library.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Janelle Monáe released her third album, Dirty Computer. The record is already on track to be one of the year’s most critically-acclaimed albums, but it has raised a couple of questions, namely, “What the heck is a ‘Dirty Computer’?” Well, now you might be able to find out.

https://twitter.com/JanelleMonae/status/996435953194594304

As Pitchfork reports, Janelle Monáe has released a new app that allows users to ‘clean’ their computers by entering the Dirty Computer experience.

“Dirty Computers! Feel what it’s liked to be cleaned, and update your playlists with me,” wrote Monáe on Twitter, before linking users to the new ‘service’.

So what does it do exactly? Well, if you allow the app to access your Spotify account, it will go through one of your playlists, deleting every song on there and replacing them with tracks from Janelle Monáe’s new album. As some users have reported, it really works, so be careful.

when janelle monae deletes your playlist pic.twitter.com/p148tf61YO

— evan minsker of see-saw.fun (@evanminsker) May 16, 2018

However, just a heads-up, many users are reporting that you don’t get to choose which playlist that gets deleted, so if you’ve got some perfectly-curated lists of jams on your Spotify account, maybe this is one to avoid.

While we would argue it would probably just be easier for Janelle Monáe to Tweet out the link to Dirty Computer on Spotify, we’re never ones to shy away from admiring the efforts of a technologically-advanced marketing team.

Check out Janelle Monáe’s new app here, or save a few steps and check out the album on Spotify.