Tory Lanez and Tekashi 6ix9ine have accused digital streaming providers (DSPs) of “blackballing” them with the release of their respective projects amid personal controversy, but Russ doesn’t see it that way.
Akademiks posted a video to open a dialogue about the topic on Tuesday (September 29), asking whether DSPs should be allowed to “punish” an artist when they’re involved in a federal case like 6ix9ine or an alleged domestic violence incident like Lanez with Megan Thee Stallion. Appearing in the comments, Russ noted that to be actually blackballed their music wouldn’t even be available on any of the streaming platforms – which isn’t the case.
“Being ‘blackballed’ by DSP’s would mean your music is just simply not even on the platforms at all,” he wrote. “You don’t need playlists to let your fans know you dropped music. That’s what your social media with millions of followers is for lol how is not getting on editorial (opinion) based playlists but still being able to be on the actual platform itself blackballed? Also this isn’t a response to anything said in the clip. I’m just speakin on the issue in general.”
Akademiks responded with stats to show how much impact being on a playlist has on an artist’s song or project.
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“Dsp play listing accounts for 60-70% of a artist streams lol,” Ak replied. “it’s basically radio play at this point. It’s the equivalent to saying who cares about this new type of radio.. just plug in ur aux and play ur music urself. Some will but rn.. status quo by all DSPs is to pushing their subscribers to listen to editorial playlists.”
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But per Russ, those numbers are not accurate.
“Nahhh idk where you got those numbers from lol looking at mine rn (check dm if you want),” he said. “70% came from listeners own playlists/my profile. 28% was Spotify playlists. 2% ‘other’.”
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Watch Akademiks’ full conversation on the topic below.
