Why Spotify is backing Joe Rogan

Well, the answer is likely a lot more simple than you might think: Money.In 2020, Spotify acquired Rogan’s podcast The Joe Rogan Experience in a deal reported to be worth more than $A152 million. The Joe Rogan Experience is now Spotify’s most popular podcast and one of the biggest in the world, with an estimated 11 million listeners per episode.Despite Rogan repeatedly facing criticisms for his views on Covid-19 and vaccines, the controversy hasn’t stopped it raking in profits for the streaming giant.Spotify’s focus on expanding its podcast library has been increasingly evident in the past few years, with the service rapidly acquiring companies “in the emerging podcast marketplace”.In 2019 the company purchased Gimlet Media, home of podcasts such as Reply All, Homecoming and Where Should We Begin? With Esther Perel, for an estimated $230 million ($A325 million).The company also spent almost $200 million ($A283 million) to buy the Ringer, which came along with a number of popular podcasts such as Binge Mode, The Press Box and The Bill Simmons Podcast.It also spent more than $100 million ($A141 million) on Anchor, a platform which makes podcast creation software. Spotify’s 2021 Wrapped for Podcasters revealed 1.2 million new podcast were published on the app throughout the year, with 80 per cent of those published through Anchor.Around 75 per cent of all podcasts on Spotify are now powered by Anchor.Looking at how much money the company has thrown at growing its podcast library and the importance it continues to place on the sector, it really isn’t hard to understand why Spotify wouldn’t want to let go of its most listened to creator – even if it meant losing a classic artist like Neil Young.John Simson, the program director for the business and entertainment program at American University, told The Washington Post he believes it all comes down to business.“In the music side of things, [Spotify is] paying out roughly 70 per cent of all the revenue that comes in. It goes right back out as royalties. They’re looking for other places where the revenue split isn’t that dramatic. … Podcasts were certainly their go-to,” he said.Spotify has also had increasingly strained relationships with musicians in recent years, with the platform being criticised for how artists are compensated.In December 2021, rapper T-Pain tweeted a breakdown of how many times a song needs to be streamed for the artist to make $1.On Spotify, a song needs to be played 315 times before the artist makes $1, compared to 249 times for Amazon Music and 128 times for Apple Music.On March 15, 2021, the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers organised for protests to be held outside Spotify offices around the world.Rallies were held in 15 cities across the US, along with protests in Sydney, Melbourne, London, Madrid and Paris, among others.The protesters were calling for higher payouts for artists and for the streaming giant to show more transparency by making all closed-door contracts public. Should Spotify remove Joe Rogan’s podcast?The Joe Rogan/Neil Young controversy explainedRogan has faced ongoing criticisms of his podcast after repeatedly using the platform to cast doubt on the safety and effectiveness of the Covid vaccines and air misinformation about the virus.The backlash really ramped up after he interviewed US cardiologist Peter McCullough and vaccine scientist Dr Robert Malone last month.Both guests have been outspoken in their controversial stances around Covid-19, and over the course of two three-hour interviews shared their beliefs on everything from how the pandemic began, the efficacy of vaccines and conspiracy theories around other potential treatments for Covid being “suppressed”.Rogan was blasted for airing dangerous “misinformation”, with nearly 300 medical professionals signing an open letter urging Spotify to stop “enabling its hosted media to damage public trust in scientific research and sow doubt in the credibility of data-driven guidance”.The podcast host has also previously downplayed the Covid, at one point telling listeners they had little to worry about if they were “young”, “healthy” and “exercising all the time”.Controversy around his show reached new heights last week when music legend Neil Young demanded Spotify remove Rogan’s podcast from the platform.“I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines, potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them,” he said, specifically citing Rogan’s podcast.Young gave Spotify an ultimatum, either get rid of Rogan or he will pull his music from the platform.“Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy," he said.“They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.”It took Spotify just 48 hours to make its decision, confirming it would be removing Young’s music from the platform.The company said it regretted the development and hoped to “welcome him back soon”.“We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users,” it said in a statement.“With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators. We have detailed content policies in place and we’ve removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic.”Since then legendary songwriter Joni Mitchell has joined Young’s protest, vowing to remove her catalogue from Spotify.In her statement on January 28, Mitchell referred to both Young’s letter and the petition.“I’ve decided to remove all my music from Spotify,” the Help Me singer wrote.“Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives. I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue.”Rogan responds, Spotify announces new rulesRogan responded to the controversy in a nine-minute video on Monday.The 54-year-old admitted he “absolutely gets things wrong”, promising viewers he would endeavour to find a “counter” guest shortly after controversial topics were discussed on his podcast.He insisted his only goal was to interview interesting people on topics of the hour, and claimed much of how he was being perceived came from people forming opinions before actually viewing the podcasts in full.“I wanted to make this view because I think there is a lot of people who have a distorted perception of what I do, maybe based on sound bites or headlines of disparaging articles.The podcast has been accused of spreading ‘dangerous misinformation’, mainly about two episodes. Dr Peter McCullough is a cardiologist and is the most published physician in his field in history. Dr Robert Malone owns nine patents on the creation of mRNA technology.“Both of these people are very highly credentialed, highly accomplished people who have opinions who differ from the mainstream narrative. I wanted to hear what their opinion is.”This came as Spotify announced a new approach to dealing with Covid information, with Spotify CEO Daniel Ek announcing multiple policy chances.He said the platform was “working to add a content advisory to any podcast episode that includes a discussion about Covid”.“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,” Ek explained.“This new effort to combat misinformation will roll out to countries around the world in the coming days. To our knowledge, this content advisory is the first of its kind by a major podcast platform.”He said Spotify would also publish its “longstanding Platform Rules”, which are “updated regularly to reflect the changing safety landscape”.The company is also “testing ways to highlight” the Platform Rules for creators, to “raise awareness around what’s acceptable” and help them “understand their accountability for the content they post”. Via news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site https://www.news.com.au