For a while, R. Kelly looked untouchable in spite of years under the microscope for alleged sexual abuse. The embattled R&B singer’s recent Tampa show sold well (here are photos), and the #MuteRKelly movement only served to increase his Spotify streams.
But a new, six-part Lifetime docuseries, Surviving R. Kelly, seems to have changed that. Labels have dropped the Chicago singer in the fallout of the series, and other artists have finally started to speak out against the way he’s supposedly abused and enslaved young women (including one singer from Pasco County).
And now Spotify users can literally #MuteRKelly (plus other controversial artists like Sorority Noise’s Cam Boucher and Pinegrove’s Evan Stephens Hall).
That’s according to Billboard, which noted that the music streaming service has quietly enabled a feature that makes it easy to block an artist from automatically playing in personal and curated playlists, as well as charts, radio or a user's personal library.
“To engage the feature, you simply have to click the ‘Don't play this artist button located in the menu are for every artist,” the music publication wrote. “If you change your mind, you just go back to the same place and hit ‘Remove.’”
The "don't play" button doesn't wipe the artist off the face of your Spotify account, however, so the song or artist will continue to appear in playlists, charts and radio — it just won't get played unless you manually click on it. At the moment, the feature only seems to be accessible on mobile, but once an artist is blocked it also applies to the desktop player.
So tell us: Which artists are you muting today?
Now that @Spotify is giving you the power, will you actually #MuteRKelly? Vote in the poll and RT with a comment to tell us who else is getting silenced today. https://t.co/wWzMPTk0j9
— Creative Loafing (@cl_music) January 21, 2019
This article appears in Jan 17-24, 2019.
