Spotify removes R Kelly music from playlists under new 'hate content' policy

Singer’s music will still be on streaming service

Multiple women have come forward alleging that Kelly was sexually violent towards them, claiming the singer ran a ‘sex cult’ (Getty)

R Kelly’s music will no longer appear on Spotify’s editorial or algorithmic playlists.

The streaming service has introduced a new “public hate content and hateful conduct” policy that will prevent the R&B singer’s songs featuring on playlists such as RapCaviar, Discover Weekly and New Music Friday.

“We are removing R Kelly’s music from all Spotify-owned and operated playlists and algorithmic recommendations such as Discover Weekly,” a spokesperson for the company told Billboard.

“His music will still be available on the service, but Spotify will not actively promote it. We don’t censor content because of an artist’s or creator’s behaviour, but we want our editorial decisions – what we choose to programme – 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.”

Multiple women have come forward alleging that Kelly was sexually violent towards them, claiming the singer ran a “sex cult”. One woman told Rolling Stone she was in an abusive relationship with the musician, while another woman’s parents claimed their daughter was being held by Kelly in a sex cult.

Following further allegations, the Time’s Up movement began to rally against the singer who continues to deny everything. Kelly previously said that the allegations were an “attempt to distort my character and to destroy my legacy”.

Spotify’s head of content addressed the new policy, saying: “When we look at promotion, we look at issues around hateful conduct, where you have an artist or another creator who has done something off-platform that is so particularly out of line with our values, egregious, in a way that it becomes something that we don’t want to associate ourselves with.

“So we’ve decided that in some circumstances, we may choose to not work with that artist or their content in the same way – to not programme it, to not playlist it, to not do artist marketing campaigns with that artist.”

Spotify has named Kelly as one of the people whose music will no longer be promoted. Other artists will also be affected by the new policy, Spotify saying it is implementing new measures – including internal monitoring, consultation with advocacy groups, and user reports. The company also acknowledged that it will be unable to police every artist on the platform.