The Best Way To Listen To Strong Songs (Spotify PSA)

Kirk Hamilton· Host0:00

[theme music playing] Hi, everyone. This is a rare PSA for those of you who listen to Strong Songs on Spotify, though it also applies to most people who listen to the show, especially if you also listen via Apple Podcasts. So I hope you'll give me a few minutes of your time. If you do listen to Strong Songs on Spotify, you may have noticed a couple of months ago that the show mysteriously vanished from Spotify for a week, and then just as mysteriously returned. The reason for that is actually not entirely clear to me. Spotify sent me this vague email about infringement without specifying really anything, telling me that they had pulled the entire show. Then I appealed. I said, "What are you doing? This is ridiculous." And then they just as vaguely accepted my appeal and restored the show exactly as it had been. Now, I'm not naive. I'm assuming that it had something to do with the way that I use music on the show. I'm not a legal expert, but I have talked to lawyers about this, particularly the wonderful people at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and their take is that Strong Songs is straightforwardly fair use. It's a freely available, donation supported educational program, and I'm using the musical examples to teach about the music itself. Of course, as you may know, fair use only goes so far, and it doesn't really pertain to platforms and their terms of service. They can do whatever they want, and that's what seems to have happened here. There was no external complaint. The show just ticked some internal algorithm at Spotify that caused them to briefly take it down. Now, I'm very glad