Apple Music pulled R. Kelly from curated playlists weeks ago amid abuse allegations, repor...
After revelations that music streaming leader Spotify ceased active promotion of R. Kelly songs and playlists as the singer faces assault and sexual misconduct allegations, a report on Friday claims Apple applied similar policies to its Apple Music service weeks ago.
On Thursday, Spotify sparked a minor controversy in announcing Kelly's songs would no longer be promoted as featured playlists, a move that satisfies the company's new policy against "hate content and hateful conduct." As noted by Rolling Stone, the artist's songs are still available for streaming, but users need to conduct a search to access them.
"His music will still be available on the service, but Spotify will not actively promote it," Spotify said in a statement to Billboard on Thursday. "We don't censor content because of an artist's or creator's behavior, but we want our editorial decisions-- what we choose to program-- to reflect our values."
A day later, Pitchfork, citing a source familiar with the matter, reports Apple Music took a similar tack when it began removing Kelly's music from curated playlists like "Best Slow Jams of the 90s, Vol. 1" and "several weeks ago." Despite no longer being part of the playlists, Kelly's image still appears in-app posters for the curated content as Apple has yet to update those images.
It appears Apple's policies regarding promotional activities are not as wide-reaching as those instituted by Spotify. There are at least seven Apple Music playlists that currently feature Kelly, some of which namecheck the artist in their respective titles, the report notes.
A separate report from The Blast notes Pandora also halted Kelly-related promotional efforts, saying the decision comes as it grapples with methods of approaching "artists with unacceptable conduct."
Over the past few years, a number of women have come forward with accusations of abuse, though the singer has never been convicted in court. Criticism of the singer's extracurricular activities reached new heights over the past weeks, in large part thanks to the #MuteRKelly campaign, an offshoot of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements.
For his part, Kelly and his management team deny the allegations and characterize recent events as an "attempted public lynching of a black man who has made extraordinary contributions to our culture."
Promoting -- or more accurately not promoting -- content created by artists whose private lives court controversy is a relatively new phenomenon for streaming companies. The policies that resulted in Kelly's playlist ban, and that of XXXTentacion on Spotify, have some fans crying foul, with critics saying the new guidelines adopted amount to censorship.
On Thursday, Spotify sparked a minor controversy in announcing Kelly's songs would no longer be promoted as featured playlists, a move that satisfies the company's new policy against "hate content and hateful conduct." As noted by Rolling Stone, the artist's songs are still available for streaming, but users need to conduct a search to access them.
"His music will still be available on the service, but Spotify will not actively promote it," Spotify said in a statement to Billboard on Thursday. "We don't censor content because of an artist's or creator's behavior, but we want our editorial decisions-- what we choose to program-- to reflect our values."
A day later, Pitchfork, citing a source familiar with the matter, reports Apple Music took a similar tack when it began removing Kelly's music from curated playlists like "Best Slow Jams of the 90s, Vol. 1" and "several weeks ago." Despite no longer being part of the playlists, Kelly's image still appears in-app posters for the curated content as Apple has yet to update those images.
It appears Apple's policies regarding promotional activities are not as wide-reaching as those instituted by Spotify. There are at least seven Apple Music playlists that currently feature Kelly, some of which namecheck the artist in their respective titles, the report notes.
A separate report from The Blast notes Pandora also halted Kelly-related promotional efforts, saying the decision comes as it grapples with methods of approaching "artists with unacceptable conduct."
Over the past few years, a number of women have come forward with accusations of abuse, though the singer has never been convicted in court. Criticism of the singer's extracurricular activities reached new heights over the past weeks, in large part thanks to the #MuteRKelly campaign, an offshoot of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements.
For his part, Kelly and his management team deny the allegations and characterize recent events as an "attempted public lynching of a black man who has made extraordinary contributions to our culture."
Promoting -- or more accurately not promoting -- content created by artists whose private lives court controversy is a relatively new phenomenon for streaming companies. The policies that resulted in Kelly's playlist ban, and that of XXXTentacion on Spotify, have some fans crying foul, with critics saying the new guidelines adopted amount to censorship.
Comments
BUT, will they treat all artists the same? They should. And if a particular person's personal behavior starts affecting their professional life maybe we'll start to see less and less of that unacceptable behavior. That wouldn't be a bad thing.
If you think that Apple shouldn't "cease active promotion" of R. Kelly then you can censure them by censoring them. You have that right!
2) Dave Chappelle lampooning R. Kelly over previous weird shit he's done.
Are you still defending OJ for not being a murderer because he was found not guilty in criminal court, or Casey Anthony of not murdering her daughter, or that Bill Cosby only raped 1 person because that's all he was convicted of which means the other 59 are liars?
And since when does one have to approve of an artist’s values or conduct in order to buy and sell or enjoy their art? And why only blacklisting for alleged sexual misconduct (that in at least some cases seems to include awkward passes as “assault”).
And yes, the idea of enforced discussion moderation rubs me the wrong way too. Why can’t people just read past text they disagree with or don’t like? Moderation is an Orwellian term for censorship. If this society tries to minimize government as much as possible and everyone runs around saying civil liberties are meaningless in the private sector then those liberties don’t amount to much.
Let the people who curate the playlists use any song, artist, album they want in their playlists. THEN LET THE SUBSCRIBER DECIDE by giving them the option to opt out of any artist, song, album, rating, whatever they don't want to hear and the curated playlist will skip those. If not, good lordy half the hip hop artists would be off all playlists. Bad move by Apple.