Weekly survey: How do you feel about the current Spotify/Joe Rogan controversy?
The blowup over some of the content on the Joe Rogan show began a couple of weeks ago when Neil Young pulled all his music from Spotify over the COVID misinformation coming from Rogan. He was soon followed by Joni Mitchell, his old mates in CSN&Y, and a few others. Then, Indie.Arie, brought our attention Rogan’s use of the n-word on shows prior to the Spotify deal (i.e. pre-2020). To date, Spotify has pulled 113 episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience.
So far, CEO Daniel Ek has defended Spotify and Rogan, dodging the reality that since the JRE is an exclusive Spotify property, the company has a greater level of accountability and responsibility. By having Rogan all to itself, Spotify, in this instance is no longer just an aggregator but a broadcaster.
All this has served as an opportunity for people to air all their grievances with Spotify including the tiny payouts to artists and the lack of a high-fidelity option. And many have been putting their money where their mouths are. Or rather, taking their money.
According to several stories (here’s one), 19% of Spotify users have unsubscribed from Spotify or plan to over the whole Joe Rogan mess. Where do you stand?
To ignor, and to profit from miss information on or by a social platform must have repercussions. If it does not, more miss information will be promoted on a platforms over time. Factual information that is verifiable needs to be made available to society on these platforms. If platforms don’t do this, what if anything is believable on those platforms. Miss information can’t be overlooked ethically by the platforms as “providing entertainment” that they themselves and creator profit from. Undermining society isn’t for profit!