The iTunes music store is a great way for small independent artists to give people access to their music, but it’s no longer a good place for white power bands. Following a report from the Southern Poverty Law Center on the large number of albums from white power bands available for purchase on iTunes, Apple has made the choice to pull those albums from the store.
These included titles from hate bands like Skrewdriver, Max Resist, the Bully Boys and Brutal Attack. In all 30 bands have had their music removed from the U.S. store out of the 54 that the SPLC identified in its original report. In a statement, the SPLC praised iTunes for removing the albums, while criticizing Amazon and other retailers for still offering them.
“Apple is doing the right thing by preventing iTunes from being used as a recruitment tool for white supremacists,” said Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project. “Amazon and other online retailers that continue to sell this music need to realize that they are providing a powerful platform for extremists to reach young people with messages that advocate hate and violence against African Americans, Jews and others.”
Interestingly, these albums are still available in the U.K. store. When you have the iTunes web link for one of the albums, say Brutal Attack’s “Anthems with Attitude”, the store gives you this message.
Still the albums aren’t easily searchable in the U.S. store via the main iTunes store. While it”s easy enough for people actively looking for these records on iTunes to find them via services like Google, it means no one will accidentally stumble upon a white power record while searching around the iTunes store.
You can read the original report, titled “Music & Money & Hate” . And in case you’re wondering, there was no way we were going to link directly to one of the albums in question. You’re welcome.
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