"Don't Play This Artist" - Spotify's New Feature

With the rise of movements like #MeToo, some of the entertainment industry’s most prominent figures have been outed for their malicious actions. Unfortunately, the punishments for many have been lax. Bryan Singer is going to get paid $40 million for his work on Bohemian Rhapsody, Louis C.K. has returned to stand-up comedy, and although R. Kelly has been dropped by his record label and had a criminal investigation launched against him, his music has seen roughly a 116% increase in streams (in a four day period after the premiere of Surviving R. Kelly). And as streaming is the number one way for people to listen to music nowadays, streaming services have been trying to take action.

In May 2018, Spotify introduced its “Hate Conduct & Hateful Conduct Policy” which removed music by R. Kelly and XXXTentacion from its editorial and algorithmic playlists. But Spotify’s decision to specifically exclude those two artists was criticized for being a flawed step forward, as by the same logic numerous other artists should’ve been affected. Many felt that although it was admirable to see such a large and influential company take action and attempt to effect positive change, the lack of detail in the policy made it feel half-hearted and pandering.

Spotify revoked the policy in June, deeming the original wording too “vague”, stating that “Across all genres, our role is not to regulate artists.” Spotify is still trying to live up to that policy, however, recently rolling out, its new “don’t play this artist” feature. It does adequately support the fact that, often times, the role of holding problematic artists accountable unfortunately falls on the listener and not the industry, but these are the same listeners who boosted R. Kelly’s streams in the first place. It’s likely that Spotify has realized that it should roll out features like these with little to no fanfare so that listeners can avoid questioning it like they did the policy implemented in 2018. This reduces some of the policy’s potential haziness, since there are still questions as to how blocked artists can still show up as features on other songs, along with whether or not certain producers and songwriters should be blocked as well, for example.

Most of the blame for the continued success of problematic artists has to be on the music industry itself, which frequently ignores the contentious nature of the artists it props up. That, however, doesn’t excuse the fact that streaming is the greatest form of music consumption, and companies still have a lot of responsibility in terms of what people listen to. With the accessibility of the Internet and streaming, music is easier to find and share than ever before, and if Spotify wants to withhold that advantage from controversial artists, it should actually follow through with it.