Why Spotify and Apple Music haven’t pulled Kanye West’s songs despite the controversy
While Apple has been pretty slow to change its mind on the issue, the company seems to be pulling other songs. Here’s what’s really happening and what it might mean for Spotify and Apple Music.
Kanye West’s controversial performance at the VMAs drew a lot of complaints, but as a business person, the issue isn’t too bad. Kanye West is a bad person, and his performance is a bad choice.
It’s not like his presence meant anything to music fans. It’s just a performance, and while it’s no longer available on YouTube, the controversy still lingers with a lot of listeners.
In some ways, West’s performance was a bad decision.
While the performance was controversial, it wasn’t an act of artistic vandalism — it was a performance.
But how much of a problem is it? And what does it mean for Spotify and Apple Music?
Before we dive in, here are two ways to look at West’s performance:
Performances and Artistic Vandalism
Performances, as a definition, are a set of actions that are intended to achieve a specific end. People engage in performances to gain status, to be recognized, to be acknowledged.
The problem with West’s appearance at the VMAs was that it violated the first part of what we mean by a performance. Instead of performing to the audience of his hometown New York City, he performed to his millions of Spotify listeners who may or may not have supported West’s music.
The performance was more of a stunt than a musical performance. No one is going to mistake a performance for a masterpiece unless he/she is a fan of the performer; that doesn’t apply in the case of West.
But it’s a stunt nonetheless.
Performances are designed to be successful. They are successful when they achieve the intended goal: audience or listener interaction.
The success of a performance is measured when and how well it achieves those goals.
But, from what we saw, the music didn’t translate well to the audience because it was completely disconnected from the music fans — and it was disconnected from the music fans because it was disconnected from the
