EK: "WE ROLLED THIS
OUT WRONG"

Addressing the streamery's controversial policy on Hate Content and Hateful Conduct, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek admitted to mismanaging its implementation. "We rolled this out wrong and could have done a much better job," Ek stated at Recode's Code Conference Thursday night.

The policy caused an uproar in the biz, prompting accusations of censorship and racial bias. Rumors swirled that the initiative had caused Troy Carter to decide to step down as Global Head of Creative Services.

"The whole goal with this was to make sure that we didn't have hate speech," added Ek. "It was never about punishing one individual artist or even naming one individual artist." Yet R. Kelly and XXXtentacion (losing 17% of streams during the removal from top playlists) appeared to be specifically punished as a result of the roll out, as they confirmed to The New York Times.

Adding to the saga, Kendrick Lamar reportedly threatened to pull his music from the platform in protest. This led to immediate damage control and a compromise from Spotify to reinstate XXXtentacion to certain playlists.

While the policy still exists on the company's website, Ek made it clear that he takes responsibility for the botched introduction. Some observers have given the exec props for owning up to this mishap. But it remains unclear how the rollback of the policy will proceed, and whether artists excluded under the policy have suffered damage to their commercial viability.