Update on The Most Holy Rosary
February 22nd, 2024
Dear Friends,
I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to address the numerous inquiries regarding the sudden disappearance of our parish’s beloved album, “The Most Holy Rosary,” from Apple Music in mid-December 2023. It has been a lengthy process to get answers regarding this issue due to slow, sometimes ambiguous, back and forth communications with our music distributor and Apple Music, compounded by my pastoral responsibilities here at the parish and school. This Rosary album was recorded and uploaded by a previous pastor of this parish, Msgr. Gerard O’Connor, so it has been quite the learning curve for me to understand and grasp the world of digital audio streaming.
The Rosary album was recorded back in 2012 and uploaded to Apple Music (as well as several other platforms including Amazon Music) through an online music distributor called CD Baby. Since then, so many around the country have enjoyed praying the Holy Rosary with these recordings. However, CD Baby has informed me that our album’s presence on Apple Music was flagged due to an unusually high repetition of streams by individual users, a practice Apple Music identifies as potential fraud. In online music streaming, such repetitive streaming is viewed as an attempt to “artificially boost” one’s content in order to increase visibility and revenue. See this article here.
Although the Rosary album has been available without issue on Apple Music for over 10 years, apparently this has only recently become a problem. I was told that the “level of abusive streaming” associated with our account has led to the indefinite removal of the Rosary album from Apple Music. After trying to appeal this decision, I was informed that Apple maintains a stringent stance on content removal.
Although the Rosary album can no longer be listened to on Apple Music, I am pleased to announce two new avenues through which the Rosary album will once again be accessible:
- Effective immediately, the album will be available for streaming on SoundCloud. It may be accessed here with this link. There will also be a link on our homepage.
- We are also in the process of making the album available on Spotify, another leading music streaming service. This effort is expected to take a few weeks, and updates will be provided on our website upon completion.
For the past decade, the revenue generated from the Rosary album on Apple Music has contributed to our parish’s operating budget. With this avenue no longer available, we kindly invite your contributions through our parish’s online giving page.
Your support and patience as we navigate this issue are immensely appreciated. Thank you for praying the Holy Rosary along with SFX parish!
Sincerely,
Fr. Ryan Healy
Pastor
St. Francis Xavier, Acushnet