Rogan is not just some musician or creator uploading his show to Spotify, he is being paid-handsomely-by the platform that exclusively hosts his content. “We are not the publisher of the Joe Rogan Experience,” Ek wrote, repeating a point he made at a town hall meeting with staff last week.īut a quick look at the facts shows that this may be just a semantic distinction, because ultimately it’s Spotify that is responsible for this $100 million podcast behemoth.īack in May 2020, Rogan signed an exclusive deal with Spotify reportedly worth $100 million, which would mean “The Joe Rogan Experience” and all of its back catalog would be available only on Spotify.Īs Ryan Broderick points out in his Garbage Day newsletter, this is not like the content moderation issues that have beset Facebook and Twitter. Just like his claim that Rogan’s words don’t represent the company’s values is questionable, Ek’s reasoning for not de-platforming Rogan is equally based on flawed logic. Spotify said Rogan’s promotion of anti-vaccine conspiracies didn’t breach its public content rules, and it appears as if his use of the N-word similarly did not break specific Spotify rules.Īnd yet, Ek announced that 70 episodes were being removed from the platform and that the company was going to spend $100 million on promoting music and other audio content by creators from “historically marginalized groups.” And on Sunday night, he reiterated that stance, writing, “I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer.” Even after Neil Young and Joni Mitchell ditched the platform because of Rogan’s promotion of COVID-19 conspiracies, Ek dismissed calls for the company to de-platform the podcast star.
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