Are non-binary people not welcome to use Spotify?

[tobias-talia]

I am absolutely fuming. I just discovered that when trying to make a Spotify account it forces you to provide a gender and only accepts the answers male and female. That basically that means that you are saying to all of your non-binary customers: "please lie on this form or you are not welcome to use our service at all." Is this your Spotify's policy? To discriminate unless you hide that identity? I want answers. Replies from Spotify staff only please.

[Merik]

Hey there @tobias-talia, welcome to the community!

I would first like to apologize with your experience with Spotify. In your post you requested replies from Spotify staff only, and I would like to state I'm not an employee of Spotify, but I can help direct your feedback to them by forwarding your post. Until a reply is posted by them, please know that Spotify does value your feedback and does not intend to discriminate. Spotify, like many other companies are still learning of all the different pronouns people identify as. 

[tobias-talia]

Thank you Merik, very supportive response! And yes, I would very much appreciate if you forwarded the post! Thanks 🙂

[Pete]

Hey @tobias-talia

Spotify supports equality and diversity in every way we can, and we really appreciate your feedback on this.

Specific information, such as gender, is required when signing up to Spotify to help us provide customised content and advertising, as well as improve the product. You can find out more about the information we collect at https://www.spotify.com/legal/privacy-policy/#use-information

We're unable to make any changes at this time, but we will endeavour to make considerations wherever possible in the future.

[tobias-talia]

Pete: so what would you have us non-binary people do. You ask us our gender and then won't let us tell you that gender. WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE US DO. You just said that "specific information, such as gender, is required when signing up for Spotify." Since you won't allow non-binary people to provide this "required" information, then yes, non-binary people are not allowed to use spotify? This is an unacceptable answer. This is discrimination. All that's required is a third bubble for "other." But oh, you won't do that. You're just going to continue excluding your transgender users.

[tobias-talia]

What needs to be happening right now is Spotifying publically apologizing to the non-binary community. If you can't change the programming immediately you also need to make an announcement about how soon you'll be able to fix it, and in the meantime work with your non-binary users to find any sort of solution you can to what is, at its core, a horrible, highly offensive glitch in the system. If you had a glitch in your system that accidentally displayed the f-word to all your users, would you not a) apologize for any offense you may have caused and b) try to solve the issue as immediately as possible? This is beyond equivalent. It is unacceptable.

[tobias-talia]

I'm still waiting for an answer as to how you're going to fix this mess. I'd like to be able to use Spotify, please.

[tobias-talia]

Is there a number I could call and talk to a real person? This whole situation and the way it's been handled has left me very upset.

[Rorey]

We’re thrilled to announce the availability of a non-binary sign up option to Spotify. Starting this week, we’ve enabled non-binary sign up to Spotify on Android in the U.S., U.K., Sweden, Australia and New Zealand. The option will follow in more markets and iOS soon. Enjoy!