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Lil Nas X tells fans Call Me By Your Name “may no longer be available” from today
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 14 April 2021
Lil Nas X has urged fans to stream his latest single ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’ “hard”, warning that it may disappear from all the streaming services today. Fans in some territories have already reported issues playing the track on their digital music platforms of choice, though the streaming services themselves have said that they are not pulling it.
After one fan tweeted that – when they tried to play the track on Spotify – it immediately stopped, Lil Nas X responded saying that “it’s happening on all the streaming services”, before adding in another tweet: “Since ‘Call Me By Your Name’ is no longer working on many streaming services I will be uploading the audio to Pornhub at 3pm EST”.
It does not appear that he actually went through with that plan – I’m not sure if you know this, but a lot of the stuff on Pornhub isn’t really music related at all. However, he has continued to repost messages from fans having issues with the track, saying: “Not even joking. Everybody stream ‘Call Me By Your Name’ hard today because it may no longer be available tomorrow and there’s nothing I can really do about it. Thanks for all the support tho!”
Fans in the US, Brazil, Mexico, Russia and Nigeria have all said that they have experienced either the track failing to play or not being available at all on one or another of the streaming platforms. Though some have apparently managed to resolve the issue.
Of course, the rapper’s promotional campaign for his new single has been heavy on pranks and trolling. So an unsurprisingly sceptical Billboard got on the blower to the streaming services to ask if it was true they were all taking the track down, and was told that they definitely were not doing that.
Unless he’s got a lot of fans in on the gag, though, there does seem to be (or have been) an issue with the track. His label, Sony’s Columbia, tweeted: “Thanks for all your comments regarding Lil Nas X’s ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’. It’s unfortunately out of our control but we are doing everything possible to keep the song up on streaming services. We will keep you up to date as we hear more. Thank you for understanding”.
Eventually last night, Lil Nas X told fans to “screen record the audio/video on YouTube so you will have the song in your gallery [in the] worst case scenario”. It’s probably worth pointing out that doing that is definitely illegal, even if the artist themselves tells you to do it.
Exactly what’s going on still isn’t clear. The song plays just fine everywhere we’ve tried it. Any actual technical issue with the track is likely temporary, if there is an issue at all (we still can’t shake that ‘boy who cried wolf’ feeling). Instead of worrying about it, why not watch the new video for Brockhampton’s ‘Count Me In’, which co-stars Lil Nas X and Dominic Fike?
