Popular music-streaming service Spotify announced Friday it would rethink its new policy of removing content from playlists based on the personal conduct of the artist or content provider.
“We don’t aim to play judge and jury,” Spotify said in a statement on its website. “We aim to connect artists and fans — and Spotify playlists are a big part of how we do that.”
The new policy, implemented last month, affected the playlists officially generated by Spotify. Creators and editors of playlists were required to pull certain artists, including those who exhibited “hate speech” in their content.
However, Spotify admitted the language of the policy was vague and was rolled out poorly. When announcing the new policy in May, Spotify said it created an internal monitoring tool “Spotify AudioWatch.” The tool would help identify content that flagged as “hate content.”
“And we listen to our users — if you think something is hate content, please let us know and we will review it carefully against our policy,” Spotify said when rolling out the new policy.
The music streaming application said in Thursday’s statement that some artists were worried that unproven allegations would affect their future career. And some became concerned that mistakes they made as teenagers and young adults would be used against them.
“We will continue to seek ways to impact the greater good and further the industry we all care so much about,” the statement reads. “We believe Spotify has an opportunity to help push the broader music community forward through conversation, collaboration and action.”
The company did say it will continue to police hate content in both music and podcasts.
In May, Spotify announced the policy, which booted hip-hop artists R. Kelly and XXXTentacion from the application due to what they said was hate speech and hateful content. XXXTentacion was reinstated while he awaits trial for domestic abuse.
