Following the weekend's events in Charlottesville, people are having a much-needed conversation about the prevalence of racism in modern society. Now, it looks as if Spotify has entered the fray and deleted multiple racist bands from its streaming service.
It all started yesterday (August 15), when Digital Music News published a post demonstrating just how many racist bands were featured on the service. Using a list of artists deemed "hate bands" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the piece found that 37 were still available to stream on the service.
Spotify acted swiftly, scrubbing the groups from its database. A spokeswoman from the company told Billboard that the company's content comes from a variety of record companies and aggregators, but that it is still "at first hand responsible" for the service's content.
She added that "illegal content or material that favors hatred or incites violence against race, religion, sexuality or the like is not tolerated by us."
"Spotify takes immediate action to remove any such material as soon as it has been brought to our attention. We are glad to have been alerted to this content — and have already removed many of the bands identified today, whilst urgently reviewing the remainder," she added.
Spotify has responded to the takedowns with a new playlist called "Patriotic Passion." The spokewoman said that it's a "soundtrack for an America worth fighting for." Listen below.
It all started yesterday (August 15), when Digital Music News published a post demonstrating just how many racist bands were featured on the service. Using a list of artists deemed "hate bands" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the piece found that 37 were still available to stream on the service.
Spotify acted swiftly, scrubbing the groups from its database. A spokeswoman from the company told Billboard that the company's content comes from a variety of record companies and aggregators, but that it is still "at first hand responsible" for the service's content.
She added that "illegal content or material that favors hatred or incites violence against race, religion, sexuality or the like is not tolerated by us."
"Spotify takes immediate action to remove any such material as soon as it has been brought to our attention. We are glad to have been alerted to this content — and have already removed many of the bands identified today, whilst urgently reviewing the remainder," she added.
Spotify has responded to the takedowns with a new playlist called "Patriotic Passion." The spokewoman said that it's a "soundtrack for an America worth fighting for." Listen below.