Spotify CEO says canceling Joe Rogan isn't 'the answer'
Source: AP
By TOM KRISHER and LINDSEY BAHR
Joe Rogan has put Spotify in a tough spot, but the streaming giant is not ready to part ways with the popular podcast host despite intense criticism over his anti-coronavirus vaccine comments and use of racial slurs.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek also said in a message to employees Sunday that Rogans racist language was incredibly hurtful and that the host was behind the removal of dozens of episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience.
While I strongly condemn what Joe has said and I agree with his decision to remove past episodes from our platform, I realize some will want more, Ek said in the note. And I want to make one point very clear I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer.
The letter is the clearest indication yet of where Spotify stands on Rogans fate with the company as some musicians, including Neil Young, Janis Joplin and India.Arie, have pulled their work from the streaming service in protest and others could follow. Spotify reportedly paid $100 million to exclusively host Rogans podcast, which now threatens the bottom line but is also a key part of the companys strategy to be a one-stop shop for audio.
FILE - Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek poses for a photo in Stockholm, Sweden on June 18, 2009. Ek wrote in a note to employees Sunday, Feb. 6, 2022, that while he condemned podcaster Joe Rogan's use of racist language, he did not believe that cutting ties with the popular personality was the answer. Ek's message came a day after Rogan apologized for using racist slurs on his podcast and removed several episodes from Spotify. (Janerik Henriksson, TT News Agency, File)
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-entertainment-technology-health-business-7e0a610a633987f32c9acc3ea14996b6
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)Alexander Of Assyria
(7,839 posts)sop
(10,243 posts)blueinredohio
(6,797 posts)MrsCoffee
(5,803 posts)Cancelling Joe Rogan is the exact right answer. Stop giving these fucking ignorant assholes a platform.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)Bengus81
(6,932 posts)That's the only reason I've listened to and subscribed in the past.
arlyellowdog
(866 posts)Stephen Colbert is on Spotify and my son, who never listened to him, does now. If Colbert cancels, millions dont get counterbalance. Taylor Swift did a lot of good becoming an out and proud Democrat. Why cancel our own.
Traildogbob
(8,797 posts)You can get Fux on Sirius all day. And the Patriot channel ..🤬. But the CEO statement is sickening. Unsubscribe to Rupert Murdock America.
BumRushDaShow
(129,440 posts)Spotify is not the only streaming service out there. TuneIn runs Colbert's show (I subbed to TuneIn a long time ago with a "lifetime" sub when it was still pretty cheap and they were around way before Spotify).
Edit to add an interesting interview with the TuneIn CEO from last fall before the current brouhaha - https://www.protocol.com/tunein-ceo-richard-stern-qa
Rogan is not "our own" either. Anyone continually laughing while spewing the n-word and calling venues with AAs "The Planet of the Apes" while continuing to promote COVID-19 misinformation needs his ass gone and if hitting a service in their pocketbook has a chance to make it so, then fine. People can always sign up again once the bottom-feeders are removed.
AZProgressive
(29,322 posts)Stephen Colbert will be fine.
yardwork
(61,703 posts)There are literally millions of other people who could be podcasters in Joe Rogan's place. Those people are being silenced instead of Rogan. Spotify chooses to elevate Rogan.
Spotify's argument is absurd.
exboyfil
(17,865 posts)to address Rogan's lies and misrepresentations. Require a portion of Rogan's show be dedicated to adversial controlled debate (not allow talking over by muting mikes) with critics.
mucifer
(23,565 posts)exboyfil
(17,865 posts)That is why the Democratic party is always behind in its appeal to the "common man".
I threw Al Franken out as a suggestion. Someone like Senator Ossoff after he is no longer a senator would be my intellectual choice.
Your cold and intellectual types will always be behind the eight ball (Aldai Stevenson, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore). At least in Stevenson's case we got a reasonably good president. The other two - wow. Two of the top five worst, and who would have thought we would agree with Bush's "Miss Me Yet" question. Dukakis is also in this mold. So was Tsongas. Surprisingly Dukakis lost to another intellectual type (Bush I), but that is because Bush rode the coattails of the mini-demagogue Reagan.
At least Franken isn't a cold intellectual type.
mucifer
(23,565 posts)she has fart jokes mixed in with the liberal politics.
exboyfil
(17,865 posts)I prefer jokes like pander bear.
Alexander Of Assyria
(7,839 posts)What next for Rogan
earth is flat, moon is a lantern in the sky?
My opinion, your fact
lets debate on Spotify!
Dr. Strange
(25,923 posts)This isn't like television where programs have to be scheduled. There's nothing preventing Franken or anyone else from addressing anything Rogan has said, and then putting it on Spotify or YouTube or whatever.
There's no way Spotify wants to start doing that to podcasts. (And Lord knows we don't want DemocraticUnderground to start allowing for "adversarial debate" from the right.) I suspect Rogan probably put into his contract that he would have control over the content of his show anyway. Which frankly, I would expect of anyone on the left, right, middle, etc.
exboyfil
(17,865 posts)I was thinking old paradigm and not the new. My idea wasn't probably even workable on television. I am in favor of more speaech and not less speech. So long as Rogan doesn't slander anyone, he has just as much right to say what he wants on any platform especially something like Spotify which has no barriers to entry as you pointed out. The problem is his audience and not him, and they are resistant to any sort of intellectual engagement.
Duppers
(28,127 posts)apnu
(8,758 posts)zaj
(3,433 posts)The high school clown isn't having their freedom of speech attacked simply because they are refused access to the all-school PA system.
They are still able to tell their jokes outside of school or during lunch period.
Walleye
(31,045 posts)UpInArms
(51,284 posts)I hope they choke on their own bile.
lark
(23,155 posts)He hasn't deleted it, but he also hasn't accessed it lately so guess that's better than nothing.
Demsrule86
(68,667 posts)lark
(23,155 posts)I am very low tech so had no idea this was possible. He's more computer savy than me.
hippywife
(22,767 posts)Amazon's just another shit company that doesn't deserve support. Someone below posted they've been moving their music over to Tidal.
exboyfil
(17,865 posts)Even on my relatively inexpensive $300 Vizio Atmos soundbar. I have a tin ear, and I still am enjoying it. Still the Vizio is an upgrade on my $50 Logitech system.
John Ludi
(589 posts)Making billions off of giving artists a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a penny already made me hate you...this is just icing on the cake. Get stuffed.
samsingh
(17,601 posts)Lancero
(3,013 posts)Which was founded by Joshua Kushner, Jared Kushners little brother.
BlueTsunami2018
(3,503 posts)Otherwise theyd cut the dead weight. Theyre on the hook for beaucoup bucks to this guy.
Happy Hoosier
(7,386 posts)Fuck them.
Cancelled my daughters' subscription.
aggiesal
(8,923 posts)CBS we'd still have Jimmy the Greek
LA Dodgers we'd still have Al Campanis
NBC we'd still have Rush Lumbutt.
Maybe he should be CEO of nothing.
Please let us know what's the answer Loser!
Javaman
(62,534 posts)slow transition. I had a lot of music on there.
I should have everything over by the end of the week.
then I will write a farewell letter to spotify indicating why I left and how I don't support racists or any company that protects racists.
dchill
(38,532 posts)People who subscribe to Spotify are paying Joe Rogan. They can't say "None of my money is for Rogan!"
dlk
(11,576 posts)Their all or nothing approach to problem solving is completely disingenuous and pathetic. There is much Spotify could do, if actually so inclined, but the truth is their dollars count much more than American lives.
PerceptionManagement
(464 posts)^_^
Response to Omaha Steve (Original post)
traitorsgalore This message was self-deleted by its author.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)If you have a Snotify account, now you know it's another Putin propaganda purveyor. Cancel it.
AZProgressive
(29,322 posts)As a poor person we have to deal with losing jobs but Joe Rogan is a multimillionaire and even if he lost his Spotify deal he would still be well off and likely to have offers elsewhere. It is much different if youre working class or poor.
womanofthehills
(8,761 posts)Offer came out today
ForgoTheConsequence
(4,869 posts)She's been dead for 52 years and her music is still on Spotify.
Mawspam2
(740 posts)...music streamer was that they got buy in (literally) from ALL of the major distributors. This meant they would have more music than other other service. I started with Pandora, tried Amazon and a few others, but was happier with the Spotify catalog and interface.
I use TuneIn for podcasts, ota radio and sports.
Spotify is way late to podcasting. The exclusive Rogan deal is what Sirius did with Stern. Does anyone still listen to Howard Stern? It took SiriusXM a loooong time to make that obligation pay off, but technology has moved on. Satellite radio is dead tech. Even they now acknowledge it by pushing their app, however SiriusXM is not user-directed streaming like Spotify or Pandora.
Daniel Ek, instead of amplifying Spotify's strengths, is diluting its value to users and stockholders. People have listened to the same songs over and over for fifty-sixty-seventy years. Once you listen to a podcast, you never go back and listen to it again. Podcasting is 'one and done'. Music lives on.
As artists leave, so will subscribers, so will stockholders. Ek's desperation to keep the stock up is exactly what will kill it.
rockfordfile
(8,704 posts)Martin68
(22,877 posts)as "an answer. We want Joe Rogan and the income he brings into the corporation."
["But, if the backlash affects our bottom line, we will change our approach."]
JCMach1
(27,572 posts)Or at least kicks him to someone else's curb