Spotify plan on walking back on the changes they made to their streaming platform through a new hate content policy, reportedly following pressure from representatives of artists including rapper Kendrick Lamar.

Spotify’s changes to their platform comes as part of the streaming service’s new Hate Content & Hateful Conduct policy, which aims to promote “openness, diversity, tolerance and respect”.

This initially took the form of “removing R Kelly’s music from all Spotify owned and operated playlists and algorithmic recommendations”, seeking to “not actively promote it”. It was reported later, however, that Kelly’s streams actually increased in the week his tracks were removed from playlists. In March, R&B performer Kelly was accused of grooming a 14 year-old girl to be his sex “pet” in a BBC documentary.


It was also reported by The New York Times that XXXTentacion‘s music has been pulled from Spotify’s playlists too. The rapper has been accused of domestic abuse in the past.