Accountability in Music [ARCHIVED] • Page 103

I can blame more than one entity it’s very easy to do. Especially Spotify in this case.

 

Again, it's 2018. It's not that hard to google XXX and see nothing but bad shit about him. For major labels, controversy creates cash. If he pulled this stunt while on an indie, he would've been gone, but he sells records, and he packs venues. THAT'S what matters to label heads. They don't give a fuck about what's right as long as that people makes them money.

 

It’s possible to put the blame on Spotify, big labels, the artist themselves, AND people who know about this stuff but still support the artist. I don’t see a point in playing “who’s the most guilty” because they all are.

As for this specific issue, yea of course people listen to him even knowing this stuff, but the point is not Spotify removing his music from their platform (a different issue altogether that should be discussed but probably won’t because of the massive can of worms it opens re: “legend” type artists of the past), but that they are actively promoting his music on discovery playlists - the purpose being for people to discover music they’re NOT familiar with. Not everyone seeks out music and researches artists the way a lot of us do and that’s easy to forget.

 

casual music listeners aren't googling every single artist they come across on random playlists. again why are you even trying to deflect any blame at all from spotify? major labels are terrible, fans are terrible, platforms who give him promotion are also terrible.

 

You’re right. They can google them. But if someone discovers him through a playlist or an artist radio station and enjoy him, they’ll just continue to listen to the music on Spotify/Apple Music. The average person isn’t going to google every single new artist they find.

 

I think it should be part of the artist bio on their platform pages.

 

we shouldn't expect everyone to google "(artist name) allegations" every time they discover someone new they like. how fucking dreary and depressing. there should be responsibility at the top in not letting abusers get shoved down the throats of the masses. major labels obviously won't do that. the platforms that promote these artists is where this change needs to occur.

 

if anything spotify backpedaling here indicts them even more

 

I can tell you literally not one of the people I work with (some of which even go to shows with me), would ever google an artist they randomly heard and liked on a Spotify playlist. They’ll just add it to their library and go about their life.

 

They don't have to do that. They can just go to his Wiki page.

 

again why are you putting this expectation on millions of random music listeners who couldnt give less of a shit and not one of the very few corporations with the power to not even give him the platform to reach those listeners

 

the point is, people are probably never going to be aware of what they're consuming as much as they should be. particularly but not exclusively in light of that, the moral onus should, at least in part, fall to those who are hosting and promoting those artists, then. that includes producers, features, interviewers, streaming platforms, record labels, etc. by and large they will fail to do that, because it's disincentivized in the name of maximizing profit. but we should still give them shit for that.

 

100% this. Spotify admitted he was a hateful artist and removed him from the playlists. This statement isn't "we learned new information and deem him not an awful person" this is "people got upset at us so we're allowing this awful person to benefit from us again".

Blame Spotify hard

 

Spotify really should have removed all problematic artists from playlists. I don’t really get why there was backlash in the first place. Who gives a fuck if one artist is missing from a playlist? If you care, play it on your own time.

 

XXX has had a top 10 album pretty much the entire year, he's one of the most well known rappers this year

 

still dont think he's even close to the level of notoriety as chris brown or r kelly and the average person above the age of 25 doesnt know who the fuck he is

 

i don't disagree with that, but xxx has far more listens on streaming sites than either of those two this year

 

i dont use spotify so i cant be sure but id guess being promoted on their playlists helped those numbers, not that its the only factor

 

this was from a little over a month ago

 

Plus, having Kendrick Lamar and Travis Barker promote him super hard had an effect, too.

 

Believe me when I say that kids don’t care at all. He’s pretty popular in my HS and a lot of kids are either unphased or go as far as to laugh at all the shit that he did.

 

Yeah, they know and they don't give a shit. Same with Chris Brown. It sucks, so take away the availability

 

yeah its not like im saying no one knows at all. im saying the specific point of those spotify playlists is to discover new music right? when you first discover someone you dont know everything or maybe anything about them and spotify is helping him reach ears of people who dont know what he did. that shouldn't happen imo. if you're organically exposed to someone through word of mouth i think its more likely you'll get more of a background on artists. so i think these curated playlists and the people putting them together should take responsibility in not promoting abusers on them.

 

spotify even said that this was because they weren't going to actively promote these people as opposed to restricting access. i'm sure labels threatened them...it's hard when your whole product is based off these corporations letting you use their property

 

It's basically cultural peer pressure. You see a bunch of people posting about it on social media, you see Kendrick posting it, it's hyped on Spotify so you check it out. An old dorkass dude like me shitting on him and talking about him abusing women carries little weight compared to all of your classmates fucking with him and you missing out.

None of my kids really fuck with XXX as much as they do 69 or Chris Brown. 69 for clout and because of his social media presence (and I think they're ignorant to what he did) and Brown because they grew up listening to them and their family supports them and they buy into the idea that he's been treated unfairly.