In the previous few years, highly effective males inside the music trade – the singer R Kelly, the Def Jam founder Russell Simmons, and the Weapons N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose – have confronted public outcry after sexual violence allegations towards them surfaced. However in lots of circumstances, streams of those artists’ music have remained largely unaffected, generally even ballooning in recognition.
The disgraced music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is the newest artist to see his music streams sharply enhance following public accusations of sexual assault by quite a few individuals, together with minors.
Identified for many years as a hip-hop impresario, the founder and CEO of Unhealthy Boy Information has misplaced at the least 18 model partnerships, a actuality present deal and different enterprise ventures attributable to mounting allegations. A video of Combs beating his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura at a California resort, publicized by CNN in Might, fueled much more outrage and calls to maintain him accountable.
The backlash reached a fever pitch in September when Combs was arrested and charged with federal intercourse trafficking and racketeering. He’s at present being held on the Metropolitan Detention Heart in Brooklyn, New York, with a trial anticipated to begin on 5 Might 2025. Combs has pleaded not responsible to all allegations and his attorneys have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Regardless of the felony expenses, Combs’s month-to-month listeners on Spotify climbed from 9.6m on 18 September, across the time when information of Combs’s arrest grew to become public, to 13.2m a month later, in response to knowledge from Chartmetric, which gives music knowledge analytics. Views of Combs’s YouTube channel elevated by 7m to 700.1m views, throughout the identical time interval. Streams of Combs’s catalogue elevated by practically 50%, in response to Luminate, a music and leisure knowledge provider.
When Surviving R Kelly, a documentary in regards to the singer’s historical past of sexual violence towards women and girls first aired in January 2019, his music streams throughout the identical interval doubled, reaching over 1.73m streams, in accordance to knowledge from Nielsen Music. Album gross sales for Kelly, who’s at present serving a 20-year jail sentence, elevated by 500% after he was discovered responsible for little one sexual abuse conviction.
Problematic artists can see a rise in streaming metrics for a number of causes, in response to consultants. Curiosity performs a major position in boosting streaming, if solely quickly, mentioned Serona Elton, a professor and director of the Music Business Program at College of Miami Frost College of Music. “Individuals may see the information story and surprise, ‘What sort of music has this individual executed? Am I acquainted with it?,’” she mentioned. Streaming serves as an “exploration” of who Combs is as an individual v “an precise want to expertise the music”, Elton added. Sharp will increase in streams inevitably decreases as “marketed-related actions” that push individuals to discover music, together with music being sampled in tv or movie, drop considerably.
Streaming boosts additionally happen as individuals return to a person’s music to see if it gives any perception into their habits, mentioned Eric Holt, an affiliate professor of music enterprise at Belmont College. “There are tons of memes on Instagram and Tiktok the place [people say], “Oh, that is what [Diddy] was speaking about when he mentioned this line or that line,” he mentioned.
Nostalgia may additionally quickly drive up engagement, Holt mentioned, significantly the will to hearken to a music “yet one more time” earlier than not participating with a controversial artist. “[People think], ‘Oh, I nonetheless love this music’ or ‘I hate that he was convicted of these items. I’m not going to hearken to this, however let me hearken to it yet one more time.’”
However many could also be streaming Combs’s music to deliberately assist him, mentioned Mel Stanfill, an affiliate professor of English on the College of Central Florida and knowledgeable on fan habits.
“There’s most likely a swath of individuals which might be making an attempt to assist him as a result of they don’t consider the accusations are true.”
Survivors of sexual assault, particularly violence dedicated by “wealthy and well-known individuals”, are already not believed, mentioned Stanfill. Cultural beliefs that the music trade is inherently “exhausting partying” may result in individuals assuming that inappropriate habits is commonplace and additional discredits survivors. Combs’s authorized staff has additionally accused these coming ahead of mendacity, mentioned Stanfill. “Whenever you already don’t consider individuals, and also you see story after story after story, it’s straightforward to say, ‘Oh yeah, individuals are simply making an attempt to get some cash [out of] it,’” mentioned Stanfill.
A number of accusers of Combs have been Black ladies, an extra issue for why audiences could also be prepared to miss allegations towards him, mentioned Stanfill. “There’s a racist historical past of contemplating Black ladies as all the time prepared, [which] dates again to slavery within the US. These types of stereotypes and assumptions are most likely someplace in individuals’s minds, deep down in a not acutely aware place.”
Sexual violence towards Black ladies can also be extra simply dismissed and ignored, as seen within the period of time it took to indict Kelly, regardless of allegations courting again many years, Stanfill mentioned.
Individuals may rally round Combs provided that Black males have traditionally confronted violence attributable to false allegations of rape and sexual violence, Stanfill added. “The accusation of sexual violence towards Black males has been a manner of endangering Black males’s lives, so I believe the trauma of that’s getting pushed for individuals, to some extent, but additionally [the belief that] sure sorts of victims [are] probably not victims.”
Any public backlash in the direction of Combs hasn’t led to motion from streaming platforms, so far. Some radio stations have stopped taking part in Combs, Billboard Music reported, with a 25% lower in his radio play time. However Combs’s music remains to be accessible on Apple Music and Spotify, and he nonetheless has a YouTube music channel. A YouTube spokesperson mentioned the platform suspended Combs from the platform’s Accomplice Program attributable to “off-platform habits that’s dangerous to YouTube’s neighborhood”, that means Combs won’t be able to earn cash from promoting. Spotify and Apple Music platforms didn’t return requests for remark.
In Kelly’s case, a number of radios stations stopped taking part in his music fully. In 2018, Spotify and Apple Music stopped selling Kelly on featured playlists, which they curate, however have saved his music accessible on the platforms. YouTube eliminated Kelly’s official channels in 2021, however have allowed his music to stay on the positioning.
The important thing distinction between radio stations and streaming platforms is a query of whether or not music from problematic artists is being highlighted by platforms or just “made accessible for individuals to search out it”, mentioned Elton. Music performed on radio stations represents a “curated programming choice” of what to carry to listeners. “[With streaming], they’re not going to serve them as much as you in a playlist, however should you go in search of them, they’re going to help you discover them.”
The selection to characteristic abusive artists is an “amoral choice”, mentioned Stanfill, one which corporations deal with as a “public relations drawback” as soon as an artist faces public backlash. “That is one thing the place there’s a public notion problem, and they also may downplay, or de-emphasize somebody, however on the finish of the day, if it’s going to make them cash, that’s their utmost concern.”
Ultimately, the selection to stream Combs remains to be helpful to his monetary portfolio. Due to the massive dimension of Combs’s catalogue, elevated streams may symbolize a whole bunch of 1000’s of {dollars} in further earnings, mentioned Holt.
However, past funds, Combs being featured ons treaming platforms exposes “new generations” to Combs’s music with out info of the allegations dealing with him, mentioned Holt. “As time goes on, that a part of [Combs’s] legacy will most likely fade as nicely. And that’s simply the fact of humanity, sadly, and likewise the facility of streaming platforms that push the music and don’t push the total context of those artists.”
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