What Went Wrong When Spotify Celebrated AAPI Heritage Month

And how the music industry can do better

Michelle Branch performs in a concert. Photo: Getty Images

The perception of us as Asians who happen to be in America, as opposed to Asian Americans, is so deeply rooted that even well-meaning efforts like Asian American and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month features put their foot in it.

Now that we’ve wrapped up AAPI Heritage Month, I want to point out something that I found very jarring. Many music streaming services and music companies highlighted AAPI Heritage Month on their platforms. That is awesome. However, while some did it well, others only further proved how deeply ingrained the “othering” of AAPI artists is in the industry. I preface this with the knowledge that the intentions were good. But I cannot pretend the execution measured up in every case.

Spotify

Spotify clearly went to great lengths to introduce the western world to Asian music from all over the world. Extensive playlists for seemingly every sub-genre of Asian music were made available under the AAPI Heritage Month category. Unfortunately, I don’t think that was the point of AAPI Heritage Month.