Cast your minds back to October 2018, and a story we wrote about a playlists partnership between Apple Music and Ministry of Sound. The gist being, as Ministry’s profile on that streaming service explained it: “All Ministry of Sound playlists and the monthly Ministry Mix – only on Apple Music.” At the time, we noted that Ministry had stripped its Spotify playlists of artwork and tracks, but not deleted them entirely: “an entirely-sensible strategy for Ministry of Sound of hanging on to the followers of its Spotify playlists, in case it wants to revive them in the future if and when its exclusive partnership with Apple Music comes to an end” as we suggested. And so here we are in December 2019, and a full set of Ministry of Sound playlists appears to be back up and running on Spotify, including flagships like Dance Nation and R&B Mixtape, as well as the 2020 incarnation of the label’s ‘The Annual’ compilation.
Their return was spotted by Kieron Donoghue of Humble Angel Records, although no official announcement of the end of the Apple Music exclusivity has been made yet. Ministry of Sound’s playlists are also available on Deezer, while The Annual 2020 has a YouTube playlist too.
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