Electro-pop group Blood on the Dance Floor has been purged from Spotify, with the streaming giant removing the band’s extensive catalog due to violations of its prohibited content policy. This policy explicitly bans music that “promotes, advocates, or incites hatred or violence” against individuals or groups based on characteristics such as gender, race, and religion. The removal from Spotify, a leading platform for music streaming, marks a significant downturn for the Band Blood On The Dance Floor in the digital music space.
This action follows a detailed investigation by HuffPost spanning several months, which brought to light serious rape and assault allegations against Dahvie Vanity, the band’s frontman, whose real name is Jesus David Torres. Vanity faces accusations from 21 women, alleging forced oral, vaginal, and anal sex. Disturbingly, several of the alleged victims were minors at the time of the incidents, and at least one case was officially reported to law enforcement. These allegations trace back to the band’s formation in 2007, and numerous former band members have also publicly corroborated claims of inappropriate behavior involving teenage girls. To date, Vanity has not been formally charged with any crime related to these accusations.
While Spotify declined to comment directly to Rolling Stone, they informed HuffPost that the removal of blood on the dance floor’s music was not directly related to the allegations against Dahvie Vanity. Instead, Spotify stated that the decision was based on violations of its policy concerning hate content. A review of Blood on the Dance Floor’s discography, which includes 11 studio albums, reveals numerous songs with lyrics that graphically boast about sexual violence and misogyny. Examples include lyrics that brag about ejaculating on women, humiliating women, and explicitly “killing women.” It’s noteworthy that Jesus David Torres remains the sole original member of the band. Despite the Spotify ban, Blood on the Dance Floor’s music remains accessible on platforms like Apple Music and YouTube, highlighting inconsistencies in content moderation across different streaming services.
This situation places Spotify in a precarious position, reminiscent of a public relations crisis the company faced around the same time in 2018. During that period, Spotify introduced a “hate content and hateful conduct” policy which led to the removal of some music deemed to violate content terms. The policy also controversially targeted artists like XXXTentacion and R. Kelly, removing them from playlists amidst swirling allegations of criminal behavior. The backlash was swift and intense, prompting CEO Daniel Ek to acknowledge that Spotify “could have done a much better job” in the policy’s rollout and clarified that the company did not intend to act as a “moral police.” Spotify ultimately rescinded the “hateful conduct” portion of the policy, which was widely criticized, but maintained its stance against hate content itself.
In a statement issued in June 2018, Spotify articulated its policy: “Spotify does not permit content whose principal purpose is to incite hatred or violence against people because of their race, religion, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation. As we’ve done before, we will remove content that violates that standard. We’re not talking about offensive, explicit, or vulgar content — we’re talking about hate speech.” This statement underscores Spotify’s attempt to navigate the complex landscape of content moderation while addressing concerns about hate speech and harmful content on its platform, as exemplified by the removal of band blood on the dance floor.
