The Big Topic: Should Spotify remove the music of controversial artists?
Following Kanye West’s unacceptable rhetoric against Jewish people, Spotify has been pressurised to remove the rapper’s music in response to Ye’s antisemitism. However, their CEO, Daniel Ek, has refused to oblige, which begs the question, should Spotify remove controversial artists from their platform?
In recent weeks, West has been banned from both Instagram and Twitter for posting a series of problematic comments, including the tweet, “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.”
Since then, West has been dropped by his agents, and MRC has also announced they have halted a recently completed documentary about the rapper. Adidas has also followed suit by cutting ties with West, which has plummeted his net worth. Meanwhile, Ye’s bank JPMorgan Chase also said they have “decided to end its banking relationship with Yeezy, LLC and its affiliated entities”.
However, Spotify will not be following, and they plan to keep Kanye West’s music available to stream on the platform. Daniel Ek called Ye’s views “awful” but said his music didn’t violate any of the platform’s policies and said it would be up to his label, Def Jam, to remove his work. Ek told Reuters: “It’s really just his music, and his music doesn’t violate our policy. It’s up to his label, if they want to take action or not.” Def Jam also condemned Ye’s comments and said: “There is no place for antisemitism in our society.”
Spotify has a history of separating the art from the artist, and despite committing heinous crimes, R. Kelly’s music still gathers over four million unique monthly listeners on the platform. Furthermore, convicted paedophile Gary Glitter also attracts over 600,000 monthly listeners.
When accusations began to arise about Kelly in 2018, Spotify distanced itself from the R&B singer by removing him from their official playlists. Therefore, the platform could cover itself by stating that they were not actively promoting his music, but users were still able to listen to R. Kelly if they pleased. At the same time, they also removed the late XXXTentacion from playlists. Before his death, the rapper was awaiting trial for domestic violence charges, harassment and witness tampering.
Weeks later, on May 31st, Ek spoke at the Recode’s Code Conference and said they “rolled this out wrong, and we could have done a much better job.” Detailing further, he explained: “I think the key point here was what we were trying to go after, which was just really around hate speech. It wasn’t to go after being a moral police about who did right, who did wrong”.
Adding: “You know, you get into really tricky things such as, has this person actually been charged with something, convicted with something? Et cetera. That was never the goal. We’re a platform, we want art, we want to express a lot of diverse opinions. We don’t want to be the judge and the moral police of that.”
If this is Spotify’s approach to the matter, then consistency is key. While their system is unpopular, what will be achieved by removing the work of controversial artists? Furthermore, where will the line be drawn, and what threshold of behaviour will warrant musicians being banished to the streaming abyss? It’s a dangerous game, and Spotify is refusing to take part.
Earlier this week, Channel 4 aired a programme titled Jimmy Carr Destroys Art. The broadcaster purchased art from a series of problematic figures, such as incestuous paedophilic sculptor Eric Gill and Adolf Hitler, with the studio audiences being allowed to vote on whether it should be destroyed. As much as they committed deplorable and unforgivable acts, the viewers were still reluctant to see their art go up in flames.
As much as I don’t understand why over four million people still regularly listen to R. Kelly’s music, they will still find a way to listen to ‘I Believe I Can Fly’ even if Spotify removed it, and the same would happen with Ye. Meanwhile, in the art world, there is clambering for Caravaggio’s creations to be removed from the Louvre in Paris or The National Gallery in London because he was a murderer. Admittedly, the work of R. Kelly, Kanye West and Caravaggio are severely hampered because of the foul exploits of their maker. However, that doesn’t warrant them being written out of the history books. It sets a dangerous precedent, and it’s impossible to pinpoint precisely where the censorship would stop.
