The Monetary and Audience Loss XXXTentacion Could Take Over Spotify’s New Policy

"SAD!" saw a 9 percent drop in streams across all streaming platforms.

One week after Spotify announced its decision to begin distancing itself from artists who violate its new public hate content and hateful conduct policy, Billboard has published a report that details exactly how artists who have been affected by the policy. R. Kelly, XXXTentacion, and Tay-K are some of the artists on that list.

Spotify followed the announcement by removing music by artists or creators who did “something that is especially harmful or hateful” from its public playlists and pledging to stop promoting or working with the artist. 

The move has been criticized by some, including reps for the artists affected, who see it as unfair and nearly impossible to implement. "Spotify’s got to realize that these are innocent people by court of law," one label executive close to a recently de-playlisted artist told Billboard. "For them to be judge and jury is a very dangerous thing." 

However, Billboard notes that “many music industry executives say streaming services are well within their rights to curate their homepages and playlists as they see fit, and without explanation.” 

The policy is also already having a noticeable effect: In the six days since XXXTentacion’s “SAD!” was scrubbed from Spotify’s playlists, including the influential RapCaviar—where the song was at spot No. 8—the song’s stream numbers have dropped 17 percent per day in the United States. Billboard estimates this decline could cost the rapper as much as $60,000 in revenue in a year, just from one song on this platform. 

Billboard also found that in the four days after “SAD!” was removed from Spotify’s playlists, the song saw a 9 percent drop in its on-demand streams across all streaming services. Similarly, radio play for the song has been declining since Spotify’s move.

XXXTentacion’s legal situation is complicated: The rapper is currently facing charges of aggravated battery of a pregnant woman, domestic battery by strangulation, false imprisonment, and witness-tampering. R Kelly has been the target of a number of disturbing allegations, including training a 14-year-old girl to be a “sex pet” and being the leader of an “abusive” sex cult. Tay-K is currently in prison awaiting trial on two counts of murder and one aggravated robbery charge. 

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