Spotify Removes R. Kelly's Music From Playlists

Photo by Prince Williams/WireImage

The #MuteRKelly campaign looks to have another ally in Spotify. The music streaming platform confirmed starting May 10 users will no longer be able to find R. Kelly‘s music on their playlists.

“We are removing R. Kelly’s music from all Spotify owned and operated playlists and algorithmic recommendations such as Discover Weekly. His music will still be available on the service, but Spotify will not actively promote it. We don’t censor content because of an artist’s or creator’s behavior, but we want our editorial decisions — what we choose to program — to reflect our values. When an artist or creator does something that is especially harmful or hateful, it may affect the ways we work with or support that artist or creator.”

Photo by Prince Williams/WireImage

“When we look at promotion, we look at issues around hateful conduct, where you have an artist or another creator who has done something off-platform that is so particularly out of line with our values, egregious, in a way that it becomes something that we don’t want to associate ourselves with,” Spotify’s VP of Content Johnathan Prince said to Billboard.

Now that Bill Cosby has been convicted of aggravated indecent assault, the #TimesUp movement has their eyes set on the 51-year-old. Last month celebrities like Lupita Nyong’o and Kerry Washington joined the #MuteRKelly campaign, asking authorities to take a closer look at the accusations that have followed the singer for over two decades. Radio veteran Tom Joyner even announced his iconic show would no longer play Kelly’s music after being called out by #MeToo Founder Tarana Burke.

Earlier this week Wendy Williams revealed she sat down with Kelly to talk about the rumors of a “sex cult” and broke down claiming, he couldn’t “read, write or add.”

R. Kelly is not the only artist Spotify has removed from their promotional content. The 20-year-old Hip-hop artist XXXtentacion, also had his music removed as part of their new Hate Content & Hateful Conduct Policy (the rapper was charged with domestic violence).