#WhatsHappening for May 11, 2018

Hey hi, kids. Hope your week has sailed smoothly along.

Florence and the Machine is set to release their first new album since 2015 with next month's debut of High As Hope. The June 29th release feature 10 songs written entirely by the singer Florence Welch- who also co-produced the album. The debut single, Hunger, was released yesterday.

Welch told NME that there was "a lot of love in this record, loneliness too, but a lot of love. It’s always a work in progress, and I definitely don’t have everything figured out. But this feels like quite a pure expression of who I am now, as an artist, and an honest one. I’m just more comfortable with who I am."

Spotify announced yesterday that they would be instituting a new policy aimed at battling "hateful content" in songs and "hateful conduct" from artists- R. Kelly the policy's first target, with his offering being removed from the service's curated and algorithm-based playlists. 

Spotify came up with the guidelines after consulting with GLAAD, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), The Southern Poverty Law Center, and The Anti-Defamation League. Put simply, if the service deems the songs explicitly racist, homophobic, anti semitic or otherwise defamatory, they're out.

Specifically, the site's FAQ deems "hate content" covers any work that "expressly and principally promotes, advocates, or incites hatred or violence against a group or individual based on characteristics, including, race, religion, gender identity, sex, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, veteran status, or disability." 

The company says they reserve the right to scrap music from the service: "When we are alerted to content that violates our policy, (Spotify) may remove it (in consultation with rights holders)." The service had already put the practice in place last August, removing a handful of white-supremacist and neo-Nazi acts that had been flagged by the SPLC.

While the song guidelines seem (relatively) straightforward, the conduct rules aren't. The company says it "may" choose not to promote artists whose behavior clashes with their company values, but won’t remove the artist's music unless the music itself is determined to be hateful- as is the case in regards to Kelly's music.

Spotify did specify that actions that are "especially harmful or hateful" would be cause, though being found criminally liable apparently isn't required- again, using Kelly as an example (he has been accused, but not convicted), though Chris Brown- who is facing a lawsuit from a woman who claims she was raped at a "sex party" in his home, pled guilty to felony assault charges after attacking Rihanna in 2009, and been sued by his former manager who says the rapper attacked him in "a drug-fueled rage"- is still on the service's Top 50 playlist. The service told Billboard that Brown's appearance on chart playlists was "based on listenership numbers" and it didn't face the same restrictions.

Don't forget to join us for Saturday Night Karaoke, live at the Iron Horse Tavern, tomorrow night from 10pm-1am. It's gonna be epic ('cuz it always is, right?). 

Birthdays today include: rapper Kardinal Offishall (42); Christoph Schneider of Rammstein (52); Greg Dulli of Afghan Whigs (53); MTV's Martha Quinn (59); Jonathan Jeczalik of Art Of Noise (63); Mark Herndon of Alabama (63); Eric Burdon of the Animals (77). #MusicalBirthdays