Spotify Removes “Hate Conduct” Policy Following Backlash

Spotify has now removed its “Hate Conduct” policy following backlash after removing R Kelly & XXXTentacion songs

Spotify will scale back its policy on "hateful conduct," which it announced 3 weeks ago by citing R. Kelly and XXXTentacion https://t.co/DNXSKEKMMe

— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 1, 2018

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I swear these days, anything that is remotely in reference to R Kelly’s music is feeling some type of heat right now! Why?? Obviously his fans are outraged that due to these recent kidnap and “slavery” type of allegations going around makes it quite hard to enjoy listening to his music. So much so that in May Spotify declared that they will make R Kelly’s and XXXTentacion’s music to not be as easily accessible as before with a “Hate Consent & Hateful Conduct” policy.

Sounds like a good idea right? Well….after Spotify had made their stance against R Kelly and XXTentacion’s music, their fans made sure to search out and play these artists songs more than usual! They literally brought both artist streaming stats to record highs that Spotify had no choice but to bring these artist’s music back!

In a statement released on Friday, the streaming service said it had created “confusion and concern”.

On Wednesday Spotify CEO Daniel Ek admitted it “could have done a much better job”.

On Friday, they explained the policy, which has 2 parts. The first, relating to the decision to remove artists from playlists if they were involved in “controversies”, has now been reversed.

“We created concern that allegations might affect artists’ chances of landing on a Spotify playlist and negatively impact their future,” the statement explains.

“Some artists even worried that mistakes made in their youth would be used against them. That’s not what Spotify is about.”

The second part focused on hate content, described as content whose principal purpose is to incite hatred or violence.

Spotify says this policy will remain but they clarified that “offensive, explicit, or vulgar content” don’t violate the terms.

Some artists feel as if its only hop hop music that’s being targeted. I think overall, Spotify wants to just stay out the clear of everything & hope to please everyone while still maintaining a safe musical environment.