Fans allege Spotify have removed Brand New from their Wrapped lists
Fans of emo rock outfit Brand New are reportedly experiencing a blackout, with Spotify allegedly removing the group from the 2019 Wrapped results.
For the last few days, Spotify users have been sharing their streaming milestones for the last year. In addition to naming their most-played artists, songs, and genres for 2019, the service has also given longtime listeners a chance to see their habits across the last decade.
While these results have given us an intriguing insight into what we’ve been loving recently and how much our Aussie artists have been bringing in, fans have reported that Spotify appear to be altering their results somewhat.
As Alternative Press first reported, a number of users have taken to social media to share their end-of-year results, highlighting a notable absence of New York emo group Brand New.
While this might seem like an odd move for Spotify to make on face value, these reports of the band being silenced come just two years after allegations of sexual misconduct were levelled against Brand New frontman Jesse Lacey.
Check out screenshots about the alleged removal of Brand New from Spotify results:
Turns out Spotify lied about what my top song of 2016 was. They must’ve cancelled Brand New and decided to save me from the shame but in my defense I’m sure the shit about Jesse only came out in 2017 if it didn’t I didn’t know. but what they got against Neck Deep… pic.twitter.com/KgFpieEtgr
— . (@idkaybictdie) December 6, 2019
I let it go last year when Brand New were my top artist but inexplicably not featured in any of my most listened to playlists. But this isn't cool, Spotify. #brandnew #spotifywrapped pic.twitter.com/gSBVTmjgqi
— J⎊EL (@Joelasfuck) December 5, 2019
https://twitter.com/degvusser/status/1202500331562659840
One Twitter user shared their findings by screenshotting their previous years’ results and noting, “Turns out Spotify lied about what my top song of 2016 was.”
“They must’ve cancelled Brand New and decided to save me from the shame but in my defense I’m sure the shit about Jesse only came out in 2017.”
Another user shared a screenshot of a response they reportedly received from Spotify, with the streaming service noting that they “cannot comment [on] the situation at the moment.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time that Spotify have removed artists from playlists or search results, having made headlines in 2018 after announcing they were “removing R Kelly’s music from all Spotify owned and operated playlists and algorithmic recommendations.”
Interestingly though, it appears that the apparent decision to remove Brand New from the Wrapped results was only made this year, with some users noting that the band had appeared in their 2018 results – more than one year after the allegations were made against Jesse Lacey.
As it stands, Brand New’s apparent plans to release new music and eventually disband in 2018 were put on hold, with the group postponing a number of tour dates, and remaining inactive since November of 2017.
Neither Spotify or Brand New have issued a statement regarding the apparent removal of the group from Wrapped results at the current time.
This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.