Christian conservative artist Bryson Gray has song deleted by Spotify
Hip-hop artist and Christian conservative Bryson Gray has had his song "Safe Space feat. Patriot J" removed by streaming platform Spotify without apparent cause.
Gray, who has enjoyed recent success with his album Bold as a Lion: Season 1 reaching the top 10 on iTunes hip-hop charts, appears to be the first major artist to have content removed by Spotify.
"I've been in the music industry for a long time and I've never experienced anything as crazy as this," Gray told Rebel News.
"It's crazy, but I guess it is what it is," he said.
According to Gray, after contesting the removal of his song, he contacted Spotify who told him to seek answers from his distributor TuneCore.
TuneCore made headlines in early 2021 when they blocked the distribution of Christian artist Sean Feucht to digital platforms, a decision they later reversed.
However, Gray says this isn't the case for him, as his song has only been removed from Spotify and not other digital platforms.
In a screenshot posted to Twitter, TuneCore appears to tell Gray "...this was an internal decision from Spotify, and they reserve the rights to remove content that violates their policies."
My distribution company just emailed me and CONFIRMED THAT SPOTIFY BANNED MY SONG. THEY DID NOT GIVE ME A REASON. They told me that they were “investigating” it. Wow. I’ve never seen this in my life. pic.twitter.com/MIa3vXfXAy
— CCG BRYSON (@RealBrysonGray) June 23, 2021
In subsequent tweets, Spotify is shown telling Gray to once again reach out to his distributor, and that they are "unable to comment further" on the issue.
This is true censorship. Not someone getting temporarily suspended on Twitter….this is censoring music. This is crazy. Spotify LIED to me….I just sent them the screenshot and this is what they just responded. This is wild. pic.twitter.com/S3ZPwMfMJq
— CCG BRYSON (@RealBrysonGray) June 23, 2021
I just asked Spotify about which policy I broke….this was their response. I can’t make this up. Share this far and wide. pic.twitter.com/cy0XTeszyI
— CCG BRYSON (@RealBrysonGray) June 23, 2021
Several high-profile artists such as R. Kelly, XXXTentacion and Morgan Wallen have been removed from Spotify's playlists for various reasons such as "hateful conduct," but it doesn't appear at this time that other artists have suffered the same fate as Gray.
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