Spotfiy will not take down Kanye West's music despite antisemitism row

Kanye West, now Ye, music will not be removed from Spotify despite the Swedish company's strict stance against his anti-Semitic remarks.

According to Reuters, the company's CEO, Daniel explained that though West's comments were "awful", his music did not cross Spotify's red lines.

Ek added the music pull-out decision squarely fell into Ye's label, Universal Music Group's Def Jam imprint, if they wanted to.

"It's really just his music, and his music doesn't violate our policy," Ek told Reuters, adding, "It's up to his label if they want to take action or not," Ek said that Ye's antisemitic comments would have been pulled from Spotify if he had made them on a podcast or recording, as per their hate speech policy, but that the rapper hadn't made such comments.

Def Jam has the copyright to West's music from 2002 to 2016. The Grammy winner's contract with the record company ended with his recent album Donda in 2021.

"Def Jam's relationship with Ye as a recording artist, Def Jam's partnership with the GOOD Music label venture, and Ye's merchandise agreement with Bravado all ended in 2021," Def Jam said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. "There is no place for antisemitism in our society. We are deeply committed to combating antisemitism and every other form of prejudice."

Kanye West recently was under fire for his continuous anti-Semitic remarks, which led many A-list brands to cut ties with Ye.