For the past month, I have consistently had a public playlist removed from my personal Spotify account. This playlist has existed since 2019, and as of 2023, Spotify seems to have a problem with it, especially since it has garnered 8500+ followers. The title of this playlist was always “Country Rap Mix” which featured almost 100 tracks made mostly by country rap artists.
At first, I originally had a picture of Colt Ford as it’s main cover as well as a description with my link to it. When it was removed, I initially thought that one of those things could be the problem. Surely, it’s not the title, right? So, I removed the description – but the playlist still got removed a few days later. I then changed the picture – but the playlist too got removed. I then didn’t even change anything and just renamed it “Country Rap Mix” – you guessed it: it got removed again.
Following this, I decided to contact support in the Spotify support chat. It took a few minutes for him to “look into it” and I genuinely thought I’d get a reason why it’s been removed so I can change whatever I needed to change. After all, this playlist has over 8,000 followers and I wanted to get it back up and running since there aren’t as many big country rap playlists on Spotify with that following.
Here is where it gets suspicious. The Spotify agent came back to me, doesn’t give any reason for the removal and before I could respond, he ends the chat. I have over 110 playlists on my personal Spotify profile. None of them have been removed. I try not to jump to conclusions, but especially after the lack of reasoning from the Spotify agent, it is possible to assume Spotify are removing it for political reasons. I am a little guy with a very popular Spotify playlist that seems to irrationally threaten their hidden agenda, so it’s much easier to remove a playlist I have than someone who is famous or whatever. Bare in mind, I do not have any political affiliations or leanings as I withdraw from the toxicity of modern politics.
I enjoy country rap (and they happen to rap about patriotism, and ‘southern’ topics) whilst I also enjoy listening to other rap forms or rock bands (which happen to be lyrically centred around the opposite of country rap sentiments). I will attach the screenshots of concern pertaining to this issue.
I have, for now, changed the name of the playlist to “Adam Calhoun, Upchurch, The Lacs & More” to see if they still endeavour to remove it. I guess I’ll update here.
It’s a shame that Spotify have chosen to do this and have now privatised this playlist. Nonetheless, you can check out more of my playlists of various genres and my own music on the platform (unless they decide to remove all that too for some nonsensical reasons).
Here is the link to the original playlist – https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6cfHonxirX8Alngh37x5aa?si=bfc3eafef7ae487d
Daniel Kemble is a music producer, mix engineer, songwriter, creative designer and photographer. His music has a widespread style including G-Funk, abstract, experimental hip hop as well as alternative rock, grunge and soundtrack. Daniel Kemble is an avid experimental fashion enthusiast which can be discovered through his style via his lookbook, photography page and other forms of content.
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