Spotify CEO explains why he feels “good about where we are” amid Joe Rogan-Neil Young debacle

He seems proud of the misinformation his platform spread and the $2.1 billion market fall his company took

By Matt Schimkowitz | February 3, 2022 | 10:21pm

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Spotify CEO explains why he feels “good about where we are” amid Joe Rogan-Neil Young debacle

Daniel Ek and his cool music shirt Photo: Don Emmert (AFP via Getty Images)

It’s been another banner week for the music industry and its leading parasite, Spotify, who’s built the world’s most incredible platform for devaluing artists. Last week, Neil Young, decided that he didn’t like sharing space with a podcast known for spouting misinformation under the guise of free speech. Despite it being a supposedly free market, wherein which people can choose to move their business if they’re disappointed with the service, this has led to another blip in the culture war between people who want a society where the misinformation can continue consequence-free and those who would like this pandemic to end already.

But we digress. Neil Young, and several other musicians, including Joni Mitchell, left Spotify because of its lax policies regarding COVID misinformation. But perhaps they haven’t considered that The Joe Rogan Experience is “the number one podcast in over 90 markets,” according to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek in a live Q&A on the controversy held with investors last night.

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Ek, a music fan who owns a shirt with a guitar on it, first commented on the Rogan debacle last weekend, when he described the last few days as “notable,” before launching into his statement in all its “Facebook hears your concerns” glory.

“When we entered into the podcast space in 2019 with the intent to help modernize and grow the space for all types of creators, we assumed they will test and challenge our teams in new ways,” said Ek. “And there’s no doubt that the last several weeks have presented a number of learning opportunities. I hope you had a chance to read our response that address many of the questions received from creators and partners and employees and the medical and science communities. There’s still work to be done, but I’m pleased that Spotify is already implementing several first of its kind measure to help combat misinformation and provide greater transparency.”

“We believe we have a critical role to play in supporting creator expression while balancing it with the safety of our users, and we will continue to partner with experts.”

After his company’s market capitalization fell $2.1 million last week (likely worrying those investors of his), Ek finally broke his silence on the backlash and spoke to the investors directly in a live-streamed Q&A session last night, when he described the issue of spreading misinformation to millions upon millions of people during a public health crisis on a platform he owns as “complicated” and a time to “take a step back.” This week, the United States reached 894,000 COVID-related deaths.

“I know this issue has been top of mind this week, but I think it’s important to take a step back,” Ek said. “We’re trying to balance creator expression with the safety of our users.”

“Of course this is a very complicated issue, as I noted in my opening. But I’m really proud of the steps we took following the concerns raised by the medical and scientific communities. And it’s worth noting that both the content advisories on our platform, [combined with] content from physician and health experts which I talked about in my posts as well, push policies for creators that are already [beginning] to roll out.”

Ek continues to say that “we don’t change our policies based on one creator, nor do we change it based on any media cycle or call from anyone else.” Wow, so good to hear he has the integrity to maintain his loose policies during a once-in-a-generation plague. Tech CEOs really are the mavericks of our modern age.

“Our policies have been carefully written with the input from numbers of internal and external experts in this space,” he said, reminding us of statements made by Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other hubs of misinformation in what has been the worst years of many, many people’s lives. “And I do believe they’re right for our platform. And while Joe [Rogan] has a massive audience and is actually the No. 1 podcast in more than 90 markets, he also has to abide by those policies. So I think when you think about that and you think about the ad business, I have a tremendous amount of confidence.” Hell yeah, king. We are thinking about the ad business. I hope our essential workers in the ad business are hanging in there! We see you, we hear you, Noom ads.

What he’s not thinking about, apparently, are the company’s 400 million subscribers. Though social media has been flooded with tags like #CancelSpotify in the last week, Ek says that it’s still “too early to know what the impact might be,” but he “feels good about where we are.” Where we are is approaching a million COVID deaths, but sure, yeah, feels good, dude.

[via Variety]