Spotify Revises “Hateful Conduct” Policy After Kendrick and Other Artists Threaten to Pull Music From Site

After #KendrickLamar and several other artists threatened to pull their music from Spotify, the streaming service began revising its new Hate Content & Hateful Conduct policy.

“When an artist or creator does something that is especially harmful or hateful (for example, violence against children and sexual violence), it may affect the ways we work with or support that artist or creator,’ the initial policy read, which sparked concern among others. 

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After facing backlash from critics saying, in order to honor such a policy the service would have to remove thousands of artists due to their not-so-positive past. Now Spotify is “partially walking back” the policy. 

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Because of Spotify’s policy, several representatives for artists like Kendrick Lamar called Executive Officer Daniel Ek and head of artist relations Troy Carter threatening to pull their music if the policy didn’t change. 

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Spotify has already removed #RKelly and XXXTentacion’s catalogs following an uproar from #MeToo activists wanting the streaming service to take action against the abuse of women. Spotify has yet to restore Kelly’s music, however, X’s music has since been re-added.