Spotify has released a new feature that will allow users to mute artists. The ‘Don’t play this artist’ toggle will appear on the profiles of individual artists. Activating the toggle will block artists from playing in playlists, charts, radio or personal libraries. The feature will not remove the artists from appearing on playlists, but it will skip past the relevant song. Currently, the feature is only available on the mobile app.
The introduction of the feature follows the #MuteRKelly campaign. Which called for RCA Records, Spotify, Apple Music, Ticketmaster and Greensboro Coliseum Complex to all remove the music by the disgraced artist.
The feature is currently unable to track when a blocked artist is featured on someone else’s song. So for now, we’ll just have to hope that other musicians follow in the footsteps of Lady Gaga and remove their collaborations with problematic musicians.
Last May, Spotify unveiled their ‘Hateful Conduct’ policy. The ‘Hateful Conduct’ policy removed the music of artists who “advocates, or incites hatred or violence against a group or individual,” from Spotify’s editorial and algorithmic playlists. Two artists that were specifically targetted by the streaming service were R. Kelly and XXXTentacion. Spotify faced significant backlash from users and key industry figures and consequently back-pedalled on the policy.
