Kyiv authorities have asked the Swedish streaming service to remove songs by Russian artists who ‘support the war’
Kyiv has asked Swedish audio streaming service Spotify to remove songs by Russian-based artists who “support the war”, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Andrey Ermak, told The Times on Sunday. The country has been trying to limit Russian culture since the start of the military operation last February.
In March last year, Spotify proclaimed its solidarity with Ukraine and announced the closure of its office “indefinitely” And “restricted the ability to discover broadcasts owned and operated by Russian state-affiliated media.” The company added that it “has taken the additional step of removing all RT and Sputnik content from Spotify in the EU and other markets.” In April, the company also suspended the availability of the service to users in Russia. However, they did not limit any Russian artists on the platform, which Ermak is asking for now.
So far, Spotify has not removed any artists from its catalog, even when they are embroiled in controversy. The Swedish company did not ban American musician Kanye West (who legally changed his name to Ye) from the service, even when several companies dropped their partnerships with him due to his anti-Semitic remarks. American cult leader and mass murderer Charles Manson also still has his songs available on Spotify.
Ukraine itself banned songs by Russian artists nationwide last May, limiting their playing time in local media and public spaces. The ban did not include streaming services and a February study by Telegraf.com.ua showed Russian songs were still among the most played in Ukraine, although slightly less than last year.
Ukrainian Culture Minister Aleksandr Tkachenko called on Western states to boycott 19th-century classical composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, in an opinion piece published in December in The Guardian. Tkachenko argued that the cancellation of venues for Russian artists by other European countries would be a “conscious step” for a “mature democratic society”. However, this was not met with much support, as David Butcher, the general manager of Manchester’s Hallé Orchestra, told the Guardian the same month that it was not appropriate to “cancel, pause or self-censor, in our case, great music that deserves to be played and heard.”
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