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Apple Music and Pandora No Longer Promoting R. Kelly

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Melody Bot, May 14, 2018.

  1. Melody Bot

    Your friendly little forum bot. Staff Member

    This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply.

    Apple Music and Pandora have also stopped promoting R. Kelly on their platforms:


    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.)

    I want a “block artist” button on Apple Music (and Spotify). Something that I can click to keep an artist from ever showing up at all, anywhere, on the platform. Maybe even granular control so you could check one box to just block that artist everywhere, and another if you still want their “features” to appear in the tracklists for albums you listen to.

    I also think that these services should start looking into informing listeners on artist pages about things that someone may want to know before listening to an artist. These pages already have biographies on them, why not include the facts about abuse allegations as well?

     
  2. skogsraet

    Trusted Supporter

    This is such an infinitesimally small step forward in the grand scheme of things but it gives me a lil glimmer of hope and given the news as of late, I’ll take any hope tbh
     
    Aaron Mook likes this.
  3. Malatesta

    i may get better but we won't ever get well Prestigious

    yeah this is literally just "we won't *endorse* him but he still is allowed to profit and exist on our platform"
     
    skogsraet likes this.
  4. Sander

    kflkmflkm

    i'm glad that someone is taking a stance, but at the same time the fact that these increasingly monopolistic services are flexing their power like this is making me uncomfortable. But yeah, this is a small and appropriate step, but i'm not too keen on what they might decide to do down the line.
     
  5. Do you think they should pull the catalog?

    What do you envision at the end of your slippery slope?
     
  6. cwhit

    still emperor emo Prestigious

    pulling from playlists is a pretty big financial loss and limits growth of popularity as well
     
  7. Malatesta

    i may get better but we won't ever get well Prestigious

    i think it would be a moral decision, yes.
     
  8. Would you pull everything, historically, as well? What about producers/mixers/engineers? Do you pull a song from someone else's album that has a guest on it? What about classical music? Do you do the same for racist/bigoted artists? Do you do it for anyone accused or how do you determine which accusations to pull/not pull? I've thought about this a lot over the years and I don't have good answers to these questions. (I also wonder if these services have a contract with the labels that say they're required to take everything/can't pick and choose Artist A but reject Artist B.)

    However, if for example, Apple Music/iTunes pulls The Beatles and Michael Jackson and Elvis, but Amazon doesn't, people will just go use Amazon instead. Those artists are big enough to change purchasing decisions. I've thought about the idea of removing these catalogs and still can't figure out how it would practically be feasible. The more I think about it the more I think that removing editorial/promotion is a good balance. I think people should be able to listen to art made by problematic people if they so choose, but letting people know the facts about the person is also important and that's where these services still aren't quite there.
     
    zachmacD, supernovagirl and skogsraet like this.
  9. Malatesta

    i may get better but we won't ever get well Prestigious

    oh, i don't dispute that it would be a real sticky situation to navigate, and might be impossible legally dependent on contracts. i don't think that changes my position that profiting from him and allowing him to profit on your platform is immoral, or at least less morally desirable. it's more illustrative on how difficult it is to enact ethical ideals on a platform of this size, to apply ethical standards to artists of this size, and to use the marketplace as a means of "punishing" artists.
     
  10. zachmacD

    Trusted

    I can’t believe it’s been this long since any action has been taken against him. Does he really have that much star power?

    I remember finding out r. Kelly was a creep in Azis’ first stand up leading me to do my own research and that was almost 9 years ago. I’m sure I was out of the loop even back then so this is just odd to me