Spotify drops promotion of R. Kelly

Spotify won’t promote any songs by R. Kelly moving forward amid a wave of allegations against the singer.

The streaming service is taking Kelly’s music off every featured playlist that’s created and owned by Spotify after determining the singer is in violation of the company’s hate content and hateful conduct guidelines.

Kelly’s music will remain on the site for people who want to seek it out, but will not be found on any existing or future playlists such as New Music Friday or RapCaviar.

“We are removing R. Kelly’s music from all Spotify owned and operated playlists and algorithmic recommendations such as Discover Weekly,” a rep for Spotify said in a statement.

“His music will still be available on the service, but Spotify will not actively promote it. We don’t censor content because of an artist’s or creator’s behavior, but we want our editorial decisions — what we choose to program — to reflect our values.”

Kelly, 51, is accused of sex ual misconduct by multiple women, including a former girlfriend, Kitti Jones, who claims the singer abused her and introduced her to a woman whom he was grooming as his “pet” since she was 14 years old.

Another accuser, Lizette Martinez, came forward to BuzzFeed last week to claim she had sex with Kelly when she was just 17, shortly after they met in Miami during the mid1990s. The age of consent in Florida is 18. Martinez also accused Kelly of being physically abusive toward her.