Pandora Is No Longer Actively Promoting R. Kelly Music

Internet radio powerhouse Pandora is joining Spotify in curtailing the promotion of artists with questionable or criminal conduct, like R. Kelly.

Sources at Pandora tell The Blast that currently the company is not promoting R. Kelly or his music actively. Listeners can still search for R. Kelly or make an R. Kelly radio station with the streaming service.

In a statement to The Blast, a rep for the company says, "Pandora’s policy is to not actively promote artists with certain demonstrable behavioral, ethical or criminal issues. We approach each of these scenarios on a case–by–case basis to ensure we address components true to Pandora’s principles while not overreaching and avoiding censorship."

Yesterday, Spotify announced that they were removing R. Kelly from curated playlists as part of their new policy against hate content. Both Spotify and Pandora are trying to walk the delicate line between ethics and censorship by eliminating questionable artists from areas where they have control in promoting which songs or artists are played.

While the announcements were made this week, according to our sources, Pandora has been overhauling their approach to "artists with unacceptable conduct" for months and the work is ongoing. We're told that Pandora knows the importance of being engaged in these sensitive topics to listeners and employees at the company and they will continue to refine their community & content policy to reflect that.