Background information

Spotify: a decision against music?

31/1/2022

Translation: Jessica Johnson-Ferguson

The Swedish streaming service Spotify has conjured up quite the controversy in recent days. What happened, who are the players involved, and what’s Spotify’s reaction to it all?

In an open letter penned in mid-January, 270 scientists, professors and medical professionals called on Spotify to take action against misinformation available on its streaming platform. The letter was particularly critical of a podcast by popular American host Joe Rogan. The show has been accused of spreading unsubstantiated Covid conspiracy theories to Spotify’s audience of millions. However, the letter attracted little attention.

Until 76-year-old rock musician and filmmaker Neil Young intervened. He called on Spotify to remove Joe Rogan’s podcast for trivialising Covid-19 and for spreading false information about the vaccination. «Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines – potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them,» he wrote. In the letter, published on Young’s website, the Canadian musician gives Spotify an ultimatum: «You can have Rogan or Young. Not both.» If the podcast is to remain on the streaming platform, Young wants his music taken down from it.

On 28 January, Spotify chose the controversial podcast over Neil Young. The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast (JRE) is here to stay – and with it its misinformation regarding the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, Young is being backed by his record label, Warner Music. As the song rights don’t belong to the artist himself, it was the label that told Spotify to take Young’s music off the platform. The streaming service has complied with that request; Young's music, with six million subscribers, is no longer available on Spotify. On his website, the artist has now published information about other streaming services on which his music is available and how to switch to them.

More artists and the royals following suit

In the wake of Young’s dispute with Spotify, other artists have followed suit. The following artists have backed Young to date:

Brené Brown
Joni Mitchell
Nils Lofgren (guitarist in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and in Crazy Horse)
Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan Markle

Brown, Mitchell and Lofgren also want to either remove their tracks from Spotify or stop uploading new podcasts. Although Meghan and Harry expressed criticism, they wish to remain on Spotify. The couple signed a 30-million dollar deal with Spotify, but have only delivered one podcast episode so far.

Joni Mitchell with Bill Clinton’s dog. Source: Wikipedia, public domain.

It’s been hailing criticism ever since Young’s announcement: The hashtag #CancelSpotify has been trending on Twitter, and Spotify’s customer service had to shut down because of the uproar. Due to the sheer number of complaints, Spotify’s customer support was no longer available. Its chat displayed a message that read: «We're currently getting a lot of contacts.» In just a few days, Spotify’s stock lost two billion dollars in value.

Who’s Joe Rogan and why is his podcast so problematic?

Podcast host Joe Rogan is also a comedian and an entertainer. His career began as a commentator at mixed martial arts fights. Over here, he’s not particularly well known. Nonetheless, his controversial podcast is ranked as one of the most popular around the world. Spotify lists it as the most listened to podcast of the summer of 2021. About 200 million people listen to Rogan’s podcast every month.

However, even before the open letter, Rogan had repeatedly come under fire. In his podcast, Rogan and his guests have repeatedly made racist and transphobic remarks like this one in March 2021. With his guest Jordan Peterson he exchanged views about skin colour in a way that was criticised for being racist. In another episode, Dr. Malone compared the pandemic to the Holocaust, and Rogan agreed or, at least, didn’t disagree with him. This episode has been deleted from Youtube. In more recent episodes, Rogan’s shows have featured an increasing number of guests spreading right-wing views or absurd conspiracy theories.

Joe Rogan. Image source: twitter.com/joerogan

In the spring, Rogan also publicly spoke out against the Covid vaccine, which he denied again later on. The current Spotify outrage was triggered by episode 1757, in which Rogan speaks to Dr. Robert Malone. Malone is a former virologist who became something of a hero to conspiracy theorists because of his views on the vaccine. Previously to his appearance on Rogan’s show, Malone had been banned from Twitter for spreading misinformation.

And yet, Spotify choosing Rogan’s podcast over Young’s music doesn’t come as a surprise. After all, Spotify paid Rogan 100 million dollars in 2020 to exclusively broadcast his podcast, including its archive.

For quite some time now, Spotify has been trying to set itself apart from other music streaming services by purchasing exclusive podcasts. Rogan’s show has been the driving force behind this, and Spotify has opted for monetary gain by deciding to keep the problematic podcast.

Meanwhile, Rogan has apologised in a ten-minute Instagram video. In it, he admits some wrongdoings and apologises for making Neil Young angry. He himself claims to be a fan of the musician.

Spotify backpedals

On 30 January, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek responded to the criticism and events and announced that all content talking about Covid-19 would come with a technical notification. Its purpose is to direct podcast listeners to scientifically sound information from reliable sources and links – probably through an overlay like the one you see on Instagram.

In the blog post, the head of Spotify further announced the publication of platform rules for content creators. The rules define what is considered false, dangerous or misleading information. Here’s an excerpt:

Content that promotes dangerous false or dangerous deceptive medical information that may cause offline harm or poses a direct threat to public health includes, but may not be limited to: asserting that AIDS, COVID-19, cancer or other serious life threatening diseases are a hoax or not real, encouraging the consumption of bleach products to cure various illnesses and diseases.

Spotify

Ek also stated that he feels obliged «to do more to provide balance and access to widely accepted information from the medical and scientific communities.»

Is regulating information enough?

In the blog post, the head of Spotify writes about what his company has done to combat the pandemic. He mentions a number of educational resources and campaigns that were made available. In addition, he says that a global Covid-19 information hub was developed and promoted by the company. Spotify reportedly also donated money to the WHO and Covax – an organisation that promotes equal access to vaccines.

The only thing missing from Spotify’s post is that Joe Rogan’s episode with Malone contains dangerous misinformation about Covid that violates the aforementioned guidelines.

The shitstorm Spotify is in, shows where things are headed. For several years now, the streaming service has been focusing on exclusive content. This is something only podcasts can deliver. Music has become somewhat secondary. Exclusive podcasts are intended to motivate customers to pay subscription fees. But now, the streaming service is stumbling over its own strategy. It’s got itself into an awkward situation: on the one hand, there’s Rogan’s audience of millions that must be appeased, as the deal with the host is raking in money. On the other hand, an increasing number of artists are threatening to leave. Should this issue further pick up speed, all the bad press could have dire consequences. One thing is clear: everyone loses in this game: Spotify, the artists as well as paying subscribers who can no longer access their favourite music.

Editor’s note: This version of the article includes three changes from the one first published. Firstly: we updated the part that said Joe Rogan denied the Holocaust himself. This was an incorrect statement. It wasn’t Rogan but one of his guests who said this. Secondly: the original wording «In his podcast, he (note: Rogan) and his guests have repeatedly made racist and transphobic remarks» has been edited. Rogan criticised transgender people in January 2021 as well as in March 2021. The source originally linked to this statement did not provide sufficient evidence. We’ve now added more appropriate ones. They’re the same as the aforementioned ones. We’ve also linked an improved source to the statement that Rogan «repeatedly made racist remarks». Namely in the paragraph that mentions the conversation he had with right-wing conservative Jordan Peterson in January of this year. We’re aware that a journalist’s toolkit must include backing up statements with sound sources. Thirdly: we’ve removed the sentence: «In other words, Spotify gave millions to a spreader of misinformation.» This statement was inappropriately sitting amongst facts.

The fact that we failed to link appropriate sources is a mistake that shouldn’t have occurred. I’d like to apologise for this on behalf of the editorial team. What we’ve also taken away from the discussion is that freedom of expression and how tech corporations deal with it is an exciting topic. We’ll therefore continue to take a closer look at the developments and aim to report about them in a sober and well-founded manner. Just as we treat other topics relevant to users of the devices available at digitec and Galaxus – from cryptocurrencies to data protection to security. Martin Jungfer, Head of Content, 1 February 2022

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Livia Gamper

Editor

livia.gamper@digitecgalaxus.ch

Testing devices and gadgets is my thing. Some experiments lead to interesting insights, others to demolished phones. I’m hooked on series and can’t imagine life without Netflix. In summer, you’ll find me soaking up the sun by the lake or at a music festival.

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