

He argued that despite their deal, Spotify is still just a platform to Rogan. “It’s important to note that we do not have creative control over Joe Rogan’s content,” Ek sad.


Ek says Spotify will host content that “many of us may not be proud to be associated with”Īddressing the long-running list of complaints about Rogan’s questionable views, questionable guests, and the questionable information they spread, Ek zeroed in on accusations that Spotify acts as Rogan’s publisher, and thus is responsible for the contents of his podcast. Spotify hoped to set itself apart with choice content offerings-and one of those was Rogan’s, which at the time aired on YouTube and had never been on Spotify, but was still the No. Without The Joe Rogan Experience and Spotify’s overall push to distinguish itself in the podcast market by acquiring exclusives, “I am confident that our business wouldn’t be where it is today,” Ek said.Įk said that in 2020, Spotify had been unsuccessfully trying to dig a foothold in the podcast world, and hadn’t been able to secure deals with “critical hardware partners like Amazon, Google, and even Tesla.” (Perhaps not surprising, considering Amazon and Google operate direct Spotify competitors.) Ek gave a 15-minute speech that, at its core, positioned the Rogan deal as a pivotal move for Spotify. The town hall-a recording of which was obtained by The Verge-made it very clear that Spotify does not tend to drop Rogan. He didn’t specify which episodes had been removed. Since then, it has removed some episodes that violate its policies, CEO Daniel Ek told employees during a town hall meeting today. Spotify paid a reported $100 million in 2020 to make the Experience one of its platform exclusives. Subscribe for daily Tubefilter Top Stories Subscribe
