“As you can imagine this is a complicated process with room for debate and disagreement, so we can’t get into an artist-by-artist discussion,” a spokesman for Spotify said in response to follow-up questions. “In general we work with our partners and try to make decisions on a case-by-case basis.”

Official playlists can be a huge platform, especially for developing artists, on streaming services such as Spotify, which counts more than 70 million paying subscribers worldwide, and on competitors like Apple Music and Amazon Music. Streaming has become the dominant mode for music consumption in the United States — with hip-hop/R&B representing the most popular genre — and digital plays are directly correlated to royalty payouts from the services.

While R. Kelly, who has not had a Top 40 hit in more than a decade, was unlikely to have appeared recently on a flagship Spotify playlist like Rap Caviar (9.5 million subscribers) or Today’s Top Hits (nearly 20 million), a young artist like XXXTentacion may stand to lose more. His song “Sad!,” which had been a popular playlist staple since its release in March, is currently No. 15 on Spotify’s United States Top 50 chart.

As of Thursday afternoon, the track still appeared on Apple Music’s premiere rap playlist, “The A-List: Hip-Hop.” Apple declined to comment on its editorial decisions.

Observers on social media were quick to question where exactly Spotify was drawing the line on conduct. The singer Chris Brown, who was convicted in the 2009 felony assault of his then-girlfriend Rihanna and is the subject of a restraining order by a subsequent ex-girlfriend, currently appears on Today’s Top Hits as a featured artist on Lil Dicky’s “Freaky Friday.” Other artists who have been accused (but not convicted in court) of violence against women, including Rich the Kid, Famous Dex and YoungBoy Never Broke Again, remained on influential playlists like Rap Caviar on Thursday.

And the question remained whether Spotify would confront the reputations of less popular artists, including rock bands like Brand New, PWR BTTM and Hedley, whose members have been accused in recent months of sexual misconduct, but have not been charged criminally. Legacy acts with checkered pasts — Jackson, for instance, or Jerry Lee Lewis with his marriage to his 13-year-old third cousin — could present their own challenges, though older or more obscure musicians are less likely to be actively promoted in general.