Joe Rogan Debate Poses Existential Question for Spotify

Jan 31, 2022
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Spotify has confronted rising strain as distinguished artists have pulled their songs from the streaming platform to protest its internet hosting of Joe Rogan’s standard podcast, which has been criticized for spreading misinformation in regards to the coronavirus.

Over the weekend, Spotify’s chief govt, Daniel Ek, stated that the service would add a “content material advisory” to some podcasts and Mr. Rogan pledged to “stability issues out.”

At root for Spotify, the DealBook publication notes, is a query that confronts many tech giants within the streaming and social media age: Is it a platform or a media firm?

The streaming service says it isn’t accountable for moderating content material posted on its platform, a lot as social networks like Facebook have argued for years. However commentators like Peter Kafka of Recode note a key distinction between Spotify and people corporations: Spotify immediately paid a reported $100 million for the unique rights to Mr. Rogan’s podcast, and the corporate has famous that his present has elevated its advert income. To some, that places an additional onus on Spotify to act like a media company and take duty for content material.

How artists reacted:

  • Final week, Neil Younger and Joni Mitchell pulled their music from the platform.

  • This weekend, the star podcaster Brené Brown, who signed an unique cope with Spotify in 2020, said that she wouldn’t launch any extra episodes “till additional discover.”

  • Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who even have an unique cope with Spotify, said that they expressed issues about coronavirus misinformation on Spotify’s platform to the corporate final April.

“I’m going to do my finest sooner or later to stability issues out,” Mr. Rogan stated in a video assertion posted late Sunday. He agreed on the deserves of placing a disclaimer on episodes that debate the coronavirus. He additionally thanked Spotify for its help: “I’m very sorry that that is taking place to them.”

Past including the content material advisory discover, Spotify can be directing listeners to a web page with details about Covid and has printed its content material coverage guidelines. However Mr. Ek wrote in a public letter that the corporate should stability “creator expression” with “the security of our customers.”

“You will need to me that we don’t tackle the place of being content material censor,” he stated within the letter.

Different tech corporations have stated related issues when confronted with their very own platform dilemmas. It hasn’t essentially settled their critics’ issues.



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Supply- nytimes