Spotify and Gender Discrimination

According to Laura Snapes, reporting for Guardian, Spotify is currently undergoing a lawsuit brought against them by former employee, Hong Perez. The suit entails issues of gender discrimination, equal pay violation and defamation as related to her work experiences.  Spotify, an industry leader in music distribution and generally left-leaning company, is under fire for allegedly allowing males in the sales department to have higher wages without higher qualifications, as well as other gender discrimination from management. This included male-only festival trips, strip club visits and other forms of exclusion. She says she was fired for a violation of company conduct, while a man in management that had a history of sexual harassment received a promotion. In general, Spotify tries to frame itself as progressive. For example, attempting to ban songs from artists with hateful, discriminatory language from being on playlists, as well as creating curated playlists focused on women, those impacted by the immigration ban, and other socially-active subjects. It is unfortunate to see the hypocrisy appear in the management level by maintaining a heteropatriarchal work environment when they work so hard for their progressive image.