Spotify takes R Kelly out of its official playlists

As part of the music streaming service’s new “Hateful Content & Hateful Conduct” policy, Spotify announced it would be taking out R Kelly’s music from its official playlists and recommendations (for example, playlists like Discover Weekly). While the R&B singer’s music will remain on the service, Spotify will no longer actively promote it. "We want our editorial decisions—what we choose to programؙ—to reflect our values," Spotify told Newsbeat. What classifies as hate content for Spotify is: "Content that expressly and principally promotes, advocates, or incites hatred or violence against a group or individual based on characteristics, including, race, religion, gender identity, sex, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, veteran status, or disability."

The company says it has been working on this global policy for “some months” and even invited users to report content it feels violates this policy. R Kelly has been the center of sexual assault allegations for years but has denied the claims.

Source: BBC

You can now share songs you listen to on Spotify right to Instagram Stories

Gone are the days of having to take tedious screenshots to share what you’re listening to on Spotify to Instagram Stories. The social network and music streaming service will now let you directly share the song, playlist, or album you’ve been listening to. On top of that, a link for the said song/playlist/album will show up on your Instagram Story so your followers can listen to. Just like other Stories, you can add stickers and text to your post. According to Instagram, this new Stories integration will also let third-party apps post content right to Facebook Stories as well, but the Spotify support is “coming soon.”

Source: The Verge

Spotify adds on-demand listening to its free tier

Free users of Spotify were previously only able to play songs on shuffle while on mobile. That’s about to change, kind of. Spotify is offering on-demand listening to 15 of its top playlists, including the personalized Discover Weekly. This selection reaches up to 750 songs or around 40 hours of listening. On top of this, custom playlists get new personalization tools. As you add tracks, it’ll begin to learn what you like and suggest more songs you can add. And when you’re streaming on a limited data plan or in a area with poor coverage, there is a new data saver toggle that optimizes music to save bandwidth. These new features will be arriving in the coming weeks.

Source: Android Police

Spotify’s upcoming event puts focus on mobile app

Spotify is holding an event on April 24^th and a new flyer related to the event confirms that the event will heavily focus on Spotify’s mobile efforts. Those presenting at the event include Chief R&D Officer Gustav Söderström, Vice President of Product Development Babar Zafar, and Global Head of Creator Services Troy Carter. There are a number of things the music streaming service can announce. One is the expansion of its voice control feature beyond testing with select iOS accounts. Another is talks about changes to free subscription tier where the service will be easier to use, especially for those on mobile. And there’s also been rumours that Spotify is entering the hardware space, we might hear more then.

Source: The Verge