Spotify will stay silent for 8 minutes and 46 seconds to select playlist and podcast on their platform to honour George Floyd. The moment of silence is as long as the amount of time that the ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin took to kill Floyd by pressing his knee on his neck. This event set off a series of protests all over the United States and the world. “The 2nd of June is Black Out Tuesday, is a day of collective disconnection from work that will help people to reflect and get together to support the black community. Today – and every day – Spotify support our employees, friends, partners, artists and creators in a collective fight against racisms, injustice, and disequality” write the company in a blog post. “We’re using the power of our platform to support our black creators, amplify their voices and keep alive the conversation around this topic so that changes will last. Indeed, you will all notice some changes on Spotify starting from 00:01 on Tuesday”.
Apart from the moment of silence, Spotify declared that they will not publish anything on social media, substitute their main podcast, the images and the logos of the playlist with a black image, and promote more artists and playlists curated by the black community. The company also donated to different organizations that fight against racism and injustices. Not only Spotify is stopping, but also the movies, entertainment and theatre industry, media publications will stop for 24 hours. The initiative consists of either shadowing their social profile or share a completely black post stopping any kind of communication for the day, to protest and reflect on what happened. Another hashtag used for the initiative, apart from #blackouttuesday, is #theshowmustbepaused. A lot of celebrities joined the initiative: Cara Delevingne, Natalie Portman, Hilary Swank, Timothy Chalamet, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Paul, Jake Gyllenhaal are among them. As well as some people from the dance industry: the American Ballet Theatre announced their support, like their founder Alvin Ailey and the balerina Misty Copeland.
