Spotify’s much contested hateful conduct policy is under review.
Earlier this month, Spotify announced that it would no longer promote the music of musicians in breach of a newly introduced hate content and hateful conduct policy. Among the artists singled out were RnB star R. Kelly and rapper XXXTentacion.
The policy attracted an outcry and even prompted criticism from Spotify’s own employees. Furthermore, it has been reported that representatives for artists, including Kendrick Lamar, have contacted Spotify CEO Daniel Ek to voice their frustration at the policy, which was introduced on 10 May. The representative for Lamar also threatened to pull the Compton rapper’s music off the platform, Bloomberg reports.
Accordingly, the music streaming platform has taken action to pacify artists, managers and record labels, claiming that it will reinstate the music of XXXTentacion to its playlists. Spotify’s executives are currently consulting music industry and civil-rights activists in order to draw up a new policy going forward, however, there are currently no plans to promote R Kelly’s music in the future.
