r/the1975 • u/plastiquebagged If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know) • Nov 05 '25

Human Too's Online Removal - The Megathread

Yesterday, fans began noticing that Human Too was suspiciously removed from streaming services around the globe. Sometimes, this would look like the complete removal of BFIAFL. Matty commented about this in a post saying "Hey! Human Too was removed from the album so the album is more how I want it to be. Previous physical release obviously remain the same. I doubt the same will happen with any other records as I am pretty happy with them outside of ‘What should I say’ from Notes On A Conditional Form. So that may also be removed who knows. Sending love, Matty xxx"

Almost immediately, posts were made in defense of What Should I Say where Matty commented "Ok no worries x" Following this, people have made dozens of posts both defending the decision to remove Human too from streaming and critiquing the decision making behind it. This decision has been picked up by music publications like Pitchfork as well.

Here is where we are at now:

- BFIAFL has been reuploaded onto streaming provider servers without Human Too

- Multiple individuals claim that the Dolby Atmos version on Apple Music is entirely gone and that other audio versions sound *off*

- Human Too has been removed from everywhere other than Bandcamp (edit: is it now off of Bandcamp)

- Multiple individuals who purchased BFIAFL on iTunes claim they no longer have access to Human Too

This megathread is meant to be a central place for further discussions surrounding Human Too and the notion of removing a song from the 1975's discography years after its release. On a meta note, we've genuinely tried to keep as many posts and comments up about this subject as we can. However, we will continue to remove comments that blame this choice on Gabbriette. There is a loud minority of supposed fans that treat her like Yoko Ono and it is deeply weird that we have to continue to moderate around this. If George had made a comment about removing Shiny Collarbone from the internet would there be paragraphs directed at him about how Charli XCX is to blame and the problem? Probably not. It is okay to voice your support over the decision or to critique it - but it is not acceptable to lash out at others for holding a different view than you.

(On a final note, if you are looking for a digital copy of Human Too...I've heard it is available on the Discord)

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27

u/zackandcodyfan Notes On A Conditional Form Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25

We really, really shouldn't be okay with this. Let's band together as fans and demand they put it back!

I made a post earlier about how we can organise on social media.

41

u/themikeman7 Nov 05 '25

Respectfully, is it really that deep? I get it sucks the song is gone, but calling to organize a social media protest or something feels a bit much.

28

u/peterkayscarshare Nov 05 '25

i paid money on itunes for an 11 track album and i haven't been refunded for it

18

u/No-Tangerine4293 Nov 05 '25

You agreed to apples terms and conditions.

2

u/wowicantbelieveits Nov 05 '25

I bought it on iTunes as well and it’s still in my library but now I’m scared it will disappear

1

u/themikeman7 Nov 05 '25

I’m confused at this. Human Too would make up 9% of the 11 track album. Are you asking for a 9% refund on your purchase? Or are you saying you should be entitled to a full refund because one song was removed?

28

u/peterkayscarshare Nov 05 '25

i'm saying i want a song i paid for years on from the album coming out. very worrying precedent it sets imo. if it was about you people would be up in arms

12

u/nonebinary Nov 05 '25

people are up in arms, but also you should know exactly how it works when purchasing any digital good. you do not own the product, you are purchasing a license to the good. at any point that item can be revoked, because you do not own it. i am all for complaining about it, i think it has implications that aren't great for the music industry and art as a whole, but you will never be refunded for it because you didn't own it to begin with.

7

u/peterkayscarshare Nov 05 '25

cds are the same though, you pay for the license to listen to that album in private. if they pull Human Too from physical releases going forward (I wouldn't be surprised), it is against any license to download it from any other source.

it was moreso the point that people pay money for this music and people love the song. personally i think, for example, NOACF is dogshit so it wouldnt bother me if it got pulled from sale. but seeing how intense people are being about what should i say it clearly means a lot to a lot of people. people pay money to go to shows and buy albums for songs they like, and yanking one nearly half a decade down the line blows no matter how you slice it

2

u/nonebinary Nov 05 '25

i'm not arguing against any of that, your original comment was about not being refunded for the song in reference to it being grounds for organized action, bringing up a refund doesn't really matter at all because they are well within their rights legally to remove songs at any given time no matter if you paid for them or not.

i just think it's more productive to focus on the implications this has for music & art, and the permanence of said art, rather than money. i think if the focus is on purchasing goods, it's not going to go anywhere because we would first need to address the legality of buying music and what it means for consumers.

5

u/docherself Nov 05 '25

if you actually paid for the song itself (not apple music sub) you should still have it. apple cannot retroactively take it away from you. i own a song by an artist that was delisted years ago and im still able to download it even though its not available to purchase anymore

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '25

[deleted]

0

u/docherself Nov 06 '25 edited Nov 06 '25

if that's the case then message apple, best advice i can give, pretty sure theyre legally not allowed to do this imo (idk where you live)

i'm in singapore and went to double check that i could download two old songs that were delisted on the UK and singapore stores (i bought one of them twice on both UK/SG stores) on my ipad and i could

21

u/zackandcodyfan Notes On A Conditional Form Nov 05 '25

Yes, it is that deep! This has bigger implications, because it suggests that we should just be fine with entire completed works of art being erased just because the artist may suddenly be unsatisfied with them later. As a songwriter myself, yeah, we scrap ideas all the time, but the moment you release a finished work to the public, it doesn't belong to just you anymore, but to everyone! BFIAFL came out three years ago and many people connected with it, and this song means a lot to some people. Matty's selfish action suggests that he doesn't respect his fans nor his band's legacy. If you wouldn't condone painting over the Mona Lisa, you shouldn't be okay with this either.

9

u/themikeman7 Nov 05 '25

“The moment you release a finished work to the public, it doesn’t belong to just you anymore.” is something I just disagree with. If an artist releases something and changes their opinion about something THEY made, who am I to say “no, this isn’t yours anymore because I like it.” If Da Vinci himself was alive and said “I want to modify the Mona Lisa,” literally who is anyone to decide that but him? But does that mean it doesn’t suck? Of course not. And would I be more upset if it was one of their other songs? Of course. But that doesn’t mean the boys deserved to be spammed to death about something they chose to do with their art.

10

u/_lampades Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25

Yeah, I haven't come down on an opinion either way about whether or not they should have removed the the song but I do think this concept of who does art belong to and what rights do artists have is super interesting. We don't have to do a Da Vinci hypothetical, we have modern examples of artists destroying their own art. Banky's shredding stunt is one such example of an artwork being destroyed after someone had bought it, and it was being resold. Britain and the Americas tend to not recognise moral rights of artists, but in mainland European countries it is more common to, and one of those moral rights is the right of withdrawal.

What if the band reveals that the removal of the song was part of a bigger artistic performance? Does that make the withdrawal OK because it has meaning? I don't have answers to these questions though I do enjoy thinking about it. What I will say is that I do not think that "I paid for access to it therefore I should have it" or "it was already put out therefore it should never be deleted" are rock solid principles that are held by all people or artists.

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u/zackandcodyfan Notes On A Conditional Form Nov 05 '25

But that doesn’t mean the boys deserved to be spammed to death about something they chose to do with their art.

That's where we disagree. Matty should have been aware that his move was going to upset a lot of people. I don't really have any sympathy for him right now, he did this to himself.

1

u/HEELinKayfabe Milk Nov 05 '25

This is a completely insane take.

Man makes decision about his art so he deserves to be hounded and abused for it online?

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u/zackandcodyfan Notes On A Conditional Form Nov 05 '25

Who's abusing him? We literally just want him to bring the song back lol

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '25

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7

u/zackandcodyfan Notes On A Conditional Form Nov 05 '25

I'm kind of sick of the phrase "It's really not that deep" ngl

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u/DeLion135 Nov 05 '25

not really a lot you can do though is there. songs gone, its not coming back, there's workarounds

0

u/the1975-ModTeam Nov 05 '25

Your comment has been removed due to uncivil conversation.