It’s getting harder and harder to find R. Kelly music these days. New reports claim streaming giants Apple Music and Pandora have followed Spotify’s lead and pulled the plug on showing Kells attention on its services.
According to reports, Apple Music is making it harder to come across Kelly’s tunes amid growing sexual abuse accusations.
Now, a source close to the matter tells Pitchfork that Apple Music also begun to stop promoting R. Kelly in featured playlists over the past several weeks. The decision was made quietly, and it pre-dates Spotify’s announcement. Kelly’s music has been pulled from Apple Music-curated playlists such as “Best Slow Jams of the 90s, Vol. 1” and Vol. 2. (Kelly is prominently featured in the artwork for the playlists, but his music is no longer in them.) Seven R. Kelly-centric playlists (including “R. Kelly Essentials,” “R. Kelly: Influences,” and “Inspired by R. Kelly”) are still on the streaming service. (Pitchfork)
Pandora has issued a statement confirming Kelly falls under the category of possibly blacklisted musicians.
In a statement to The Blast, a rep for the company says, “Pandora’s policy is to not actively promote artists with certain demonstrable behavioral, ethical or criminal issues. We approach each of these scenarios on a case–by–case basis to ensure we address components true to Pandora’s principles while not overreaching and avoiding censorship.” (The Blast)
R. Kelly personally reacted to rap star 50 Cent coming to his defense amid Spotify hiding his tunes.
https://twitter.com/rkelly/status/994676503374786560
Both 50 Cent and West Coast rap veteran Snoop Dogg have reacted to Spotify’s censorship.
Spotify is wrong for what there doing to artist like R Kelly and xxxtentacion. There not even convicted of any thing.
— 50cent (@50cent) May 10, 2018
This week, Spotify issued a statement claiming it would pull music from artists with hate content.
“We are removing R. Kelly’s music from all Spotify owned and operated playlists and algorithmic recommendations such as Discover Weekly. His music will still be available on the service, but Spotify will not actively promote it,” a further statement from Spotify provided to NPR reads. “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. When an artist or creator does something that is especially harmful or hateful, it may affect the ways we work with or support that artist or creator.” (NPR)