R Kelly

Apple Music & Pandora also stopped promoting R Kelly

Yesterday, Spotify removed R Kelly and XXXTentacion from its playlists as it rolled out a new Hate Content & Hateful Conduct policy. Today, Apple Music and Pandora have also stopped promoting R Kelly, though Apple Music still has XXXTentaction on two of their current playlists. Pitchfork reports:

Asource 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.

XXXTentacion, who was also pulled from Spotify playlists under the new policy, is still being promoted by Apple. His song “changes” is the first song on the “Tearjerkers” playlist and “SAD!” appears on the #OnRepeat playlist (“the newest R&B and hip-hop tracks we’re obsessed with.”)

Pandora has also ceased promotion of R. Kelly on their service, according to a report by the Blast. When reached for comment, a representative for Pandora provided the following statement to Pitchfork:

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.

You can read more here.

In other related news, a rep for XXXTentacion reached out to Billboard regarding Spotify’s decision to no longer promote XXXTentacion, writing, “I don’t have a comment, just a question. Will Spotify remove all [these] artists from playlists?” Billboard states that “the list provided included the likes of Gene Simmons from KISS, David Bowie, James Brown, Seal, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Nick Carter of Backstreet Boys, Real Estate, Michael Jackson, Miles Davis, 6ix9ine, Nelly, Miguel, Fabolous and Dr. Dre, among others, with various allegations of sexual or domestic assault attached to each name.”