Radio stations have started quietly dropping Ryan Adams

Earlier this week, “Rain” was sitting in the top 20 of Billboard’s Adult Alternative charts; now, Nielsen Music reports that it’s rapidly slipping off station rotations across the country. Billboard reached out to multiple station programmers about the decision, some of whom were willing to open up about it. “Once we got his texts of him sexually harassing a 14-year-old girl, it was like, no, we have to stop,” one said. Another, speaking anonymously, was more frank: “On the one hand, I believe in innocent until proven guilty, but on the other hand, in the court of public opinion, he has already been convicted. And public opinion is what impacts our listeners.”

It’s unclear how long the move away from Adams’ frequently lucrative output will stick; just last year, Spotify ran into controversy when it attempted to modulate its musical curation in response to the off-stage actions of high-profile artists/alleged abusers like R. Kelly. The unofficial nature of the removal will presumably insulate the stations from some of the backlash that greeted the streamer’s “Hateful Conduct” policy, though. Meanwhile, Adams’ radio promoters at Capitol have so far declined to comment on the news.