Spotify boss says Joe Rogan does not reflect the company’s values

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Contentious podcaster Joe Rogan does not represent Spotify’s values, says the company’s chief executive, who dished out $100million in licensing rights for Rogan’s show.  

Daniel Ek in an internal memo Sunday apologized to employees for the Joe Rogan Experience’s latest n-word controversy, which tailed a previous fallout over pandemic misinformation spread during Rogan’s podcast.

‘There are no words I can say to adequately convey how deeply sorry I am for the way The Joe Rogan Experience controversy continues to impact each of you,” Ek said in the memo. ‘Not only are some of Joe Rogan’s comments incredibly hurtful – I want to make clear that they do not represent the values of this company.

‘I know this situation leaves many of you feeling drained, frustrated and unheard.’ 

Ek confirmed the removal of 113 episodes of podcast from its platform after Rogan issued an apology for having previously used racial slurs on his show. The Wall Street Journal reported last June that Spotify paid more than $100million for the exclusive licensing rights to Rogan’s sow.

But Ek held firm that ‘silencing’ Rogan was not the answer. 

‘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. And I want to make one point very clear – I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer,’ Ek said in the memo. ‘We should have clear lines around content and take action when they are crossed, but canceling voices is a slippery slope. Looking at the issue more broadly, it’s critical thinking and open debate that powers real and necessary progress.’

On Saturday, Rogan was forced to respond to a compilation of resurfaced clips from his podcast – which was hosted on YouTube at the time and not Spotify – in which he used the N-word more than 20 times.

In total, Rogan utters the word 24 times in 23 separate clips, which were recorded before the host left his longtime platform on YouTube for his exclusive deal with Spotify in 2020.

Rogan admitted on Saturday that ‘it looks f***ing horrible. Even to me.’

Rogan added that the slurs were the ‘most regretful and shameful thing’ he has ever had to address and that he hasn´t used the N-word in years.

JRE Missing, a website that automatically detects deleted episodes of Rogan’s podcast, detected 113 missing episodes. 

Most of the pulled episodes were recorded before his recent COVID-19 controversy and involved far-right commentators – or outright conspiracy theorists – including Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, Owen Benjamin and Canadian writer Gavin Miles McInnes.

Most of the pulled episodes were recorded before his recent COVID-19 controversy and involved far-right commentators – or outright conspiracy theorists – including Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, Owen Benjamin and Canadian writer Gavin Miles McInnes.

Rogan, 54, has been under fire in recent weeks from progressives and others in favor of canceling the JRE host’s $100 million deal with the world’s most popular streaming service for what’s been called misinformation regarding the Covid-19 vaccine. 

In his statement, Ek added that he believes in elevating creators from underrepresented communities and will invest $100 million towards ‘the licensing, development, and marketing of music (artists and songwriters) and audio content from historically marginalized groups.’ 

‘This will dramatically increase our efforts in these areas. While some might want us to pursue a different path, I believe that more speech on more issues can be highly effective in improving the status quo and enhancing the conversation altogether.’

Ek also apologized to his employees for the controversy the company has been embroiled in lately. 

‘I deeply regret that you are carrying so much of this burden. I also want to be transparent in setting the expectation that in order to achieve our goal of becoming the global audio platform, these kinds of disputes will be inevitable,’ he said. ‘For me, I come back to centering on our mission of unlocking the potential of human creativity and enabling more than a billion people to enjoy the work of what we think will be more than 50 million creators. That mission makes these clashes worth the effort.’

The statement came after Ek stood up for Rogan last week before the racial slurs resurfaced, saying “it is important to me that we don´t take on the position of being content censor.”

Ek told The Wall Street Journal last week that he took responsibility for being “too slow to respond” to the criticism over vaccine misinformation. It took the company five days to respond publicly to Young.

“It´s become clear to me that we have an obligation to do more to provide balance and access to widely accepted information from the medical and scientific communities guiding us through this unprecedented time,” Ek continued in a statement. 

Things began in late January when singer Neil Young demanded that his music be removed from Spotify, citing the streaming service’s distribution partnership with Joe Rogan and accusing Rogan’s podcast The Joe Rogan Experience of spreading false information regarding COVID-19 and vaccines.

Young posted a since-deleted open letter to his official website that read in part, ‘Please immediately inform Spotify that I am actively canceling all my music availability on Spotify as soon as possible. I am doing this because Spotify is spreading false information about vaccines — potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them.

‘Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule,’ the statement continues. ‘I want you to let Spotify know immediately today that I want all of my music off their platform. They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.’

On Tuesday, David Crosby and Stephen Stills joined Neil Young and Graham Nash in asking their labels to remove their collective recordings from Spotify.

According to the announcement, the musicians have decided to remove their records from the streaming platform including the recordings of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; Crosby, Stills & Nash and Crosby-Nash, as well as Crosby’s and Stills’ solo projects.

Nash has already begun the process to take down his solo recordings.

In a unified statement, the band members commented, ‘We support Neil and we agree with him that there is dangerous disinformation being aired on Spotify’s Joe Rogan podcast. While we always value alternate points of view, knowingly spreading disinformation during this global pandemic has deadly consequences. Until real action is taken to show that a concern for humanity must be balanced with commerce, we don’t want our music – or the music we made together – to be on the same platform.’

Following a similar request by Joni Mitchell, the move reunites the five artists, who have been friends and collaborators since the 1960s, in a stance that they certainly could not have imagined 50 years ago.

Public health officials have also urged Spotify to take action against Rogan, accusing the massively popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast of possessing a ‘concerning history of broadcasting misinformation, particularly regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.’

At 54, Rogan, the former taekwondo champion has millions of fans, who appreciate his outspokenness, his iconoclastic ideas, and the variety of his guests.

But he also has many detractors for spreading disinformation about the coronavirus and other topics on the air.

For his accusers, he is particularly dangerous because his show The Joe Rogan Experience, which has been broadcast exclusively on Spotify since 2020 under a deal worth an estimated $100 million, attracts a staggering 11 million listeners per episode on average.

Often with a glass of whiskey in hand, he chats casually for two to three hours with a guest on topics as varied as flying saucers, psychedelic drugs, red meat and fitness, slipping in an expletive here and there.

In 12 years, he has hosted nearly 1,000 guests, 88 percent of them male, according to the fan site JRELibrary.

They include Tesla boss Elon Musk, who smoked a joint on his set, whistleblower Edward Snowden and film director Oliver Stone.

But Rogan has also given voice to climate skeptics, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and, since the start of the pandemic, figures in the anti-vaccine movement, earning him the label of ‘a veritable megaphone of right-wing lies’ by progressive website Media Matters for America.

As for his guests, ‘I’m interested in having interesting conversations with people that have differing opinions. I’m not interested in only talking to people that have one perspective,’ he said in a video posted on Instagram after Young’s criticism that seemingly conflated misinformation with opinions.

‘I’m not trying to promote misinformation,’ he continued. ‘I will do my best to try to balance out these more controversial viewpoints with other people’s perspectives.’

He said he agreed with Spotify’s announcement in response to Young and Mitchell that Covid podcasts would include links to factual and scientifically sourced information.

In a perhaps telling comment for someone who was already famous before launching his podcast, he admitted he had not been ready for the ‘strange’ responsibility of having ‘this many viewers and listeners.’

‘It’s nothing that I prepared for, and it’s nothing that I ever anticipated.’

Then Grammy-winning R&B singer India Arie had posted the problematic clips Friday afternoon, while explaining why she decided to part ways with the world’s most popular streaming service and calling for her followers to ‘delete Spotify,’ using the hashtag.

‘You know, the n***** thing,’ the former Fear Factor host can be heard saying in one of the snippets of the slur-filled supercut.

‘Boy, he’s a n*****,’ Rogan says in another snippet recorded on an old set of his long-running podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience – now the most listened to program on the Swedish streaming service.

The comedian argued that he was fascinated by the slur and often used it when quoting standup routines from the likes of Red Foxx and Lenny Bruce.

‘It’s a very unusual word, but it’s not my word to use,’ he said. ‘I never used it to be racist, because I’m not racist, but whenever you’re in a situation where you have to say ‘I’m not racist,’ you’ve f***ed up, and I clearly have f***ed up.’

Rogan also responded to a clip that resurfaced of him calling a black neighborhood in Philadelphia that he saw a movie in ‘Planet of the Apes.’

‘I was trying to make the story entertaining,’ he said. ‘I did not, nor did I ever say that black people are apes, but it sure f***ing sounded like that. It wasn’t a racist story, but it sounded terrible.’

‘I’ve said a lot of f***ing stupid s**t, which is okay, but not when you’re talking about race.’

Rogan wrapped up the nearly six-minute clip apologizing three times in hopes that his video would be a ‘teachable moment for anybody that doesn’t realize how offensive that word can be coming out of a white person’s mouth, in context or out of context.’

Arie joined a number of other artists who have elected to remove their music from the service because of comments made by Rogan on his podcast.

Most notably, renowned singer-songwriter Neil Young announced his exit from the service, citing ‘misinformation’ Rogan has spread about COVID-19, with artists like Joni Mitchell and Graham Nash also following suit.

Arie added that Young voicing his concerns encouraged her to come forward with her own complaints.

The resulting boycotts from the multiple musicians that have followed Young’s example saw Spotify lose $2billion in market value this week.

‘I empathize with the people who are leaving for the COVID disinformation reasons – and I think that they should. I also think that Joe Rogan has the right to say whatever he wants to say,’ Arie says, before adding, ‘I also think that I have the right to say whatever I want to say.

‘Spotify is built on the back of the music streaming, so they take this money that’s built from streaming and they pay this guy $100million but they pay us .003 percent of a penny? Just take me off! I don’t want to generate money that pays this.

‘Just take me off. That’s where I’m at.’

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek first responded to the controversy surrounding Rogan’s comments regarding COVID and vaccines against the deadly virus in an official statement on Sunday, saying Spotify would be adding COVID-19 content advisories to all podcast episodes that cover the virus.

‘This advisory will direct listeners to our dedicated COVID-19 Hub, a resource that provides easy access to data-driven facts, up-to-date information as shared by scientists, physicians, academics and public health authorities around the world, as well as links to trusted sources,’ the statement said.