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Lizzo says racist and fatphobic algorithms are making album promotion harder
Lizzo says algorithm-driven feeds are hurting album promotion, as she rolls out Bitch ahead of its June 5 release.
Lizzo has taken aim at social media’s algorithm-driven feeds, arguing that the way platforms now surface posts is “destroying the music industry” and making it harder to properly roll out new music.
The singer is set to release her third studio album, Bitch, on June 5, with pre-orders available pre-order here. So far, she has shared the Meredith Brooks-sampling title track and ‘Don’t Make Me Love U’, but on Tuesday (May 12) she used TikTok to explain why even that kind of rollout feels less straightforward than it used to.
“The algorithm-based way that social media functions now is destroying the music industry,” she said in the clip. “If your algorithm is super serving you things out of order of when they’re happening, then the general public has no idea when music is actually coming out.”
She added that the shift is relatively recent in industry terms. “Back in the day, which was maybe even just five years ago, we used to get things chronologically,” she continued. “Music marketing relies heavily on social media, but now, ever since the algorithm has been showing us things out of order, there’s actually no way to successfully promote an album where everyone knows your album is coming.”
Don’t get me started on how the algorithm is racist & fat phobic 😏
Her complaint was not just about visibility in the abstract. Lizzo said even she struggles to keep up with releases by artists she likes, and that the system can work against her own posts too.
“Where it bites me in the ass is I have a private page with over 280,000 people who follow me because they support me, because they love me. But even when I post on that page, I’m not hitting their algorithm,” she said.
The TikTok was captioned: “Don’t get me started on how the algorithm is racist & fat phobic.”
Bitch will be Lizzo’s first album since 2022’s Special, which NME reviewed four stars. At the time, Nick Levine wrote that “perhaps inevitably, given Lizzo’s overwhelmingly positive message, ‘Special’ is sometimes a bit cheesy. Still, it’s cheesy in a way you won’t want to resist,” before concluding: “Lizzo knows exactly who she is as an artist and what she wants to achieve: she’s the bad bitch with an incredible talent for making people feel good.”
Last month, the ‘Good As Hell’ singer also said she had vowed to remain a virgin until she won a Grammy, and that she lost her virginity in 2020 when she took home three. She also said she did not have her “first kiss” until she was 21.
Outside the music campaign, Lizzo has said she will continue fighting the lawsuit filed by three former backup dancers, who accuse her of sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment, allegations she denies. In her own words, “the truth is less salacious than the headlines”.
