Spotify CEO Doesn’t Agree With ‘Very Offensive’ Joe Rogan, Either

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek doesn’t agree with Joe Rogan, but he’s still giving him a platform to say what he has to say.

On Thursday, Spotify’s stock began to plummet as even more artists pulled their music off the streaming service. As of yesterday, artist India Arie and David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills, and Nash, joined Neil Youngand Joni Mitchellin pulling their music off the streaming service.

Crosby also called on “Love Story” singer Taylor Swift to stand in solidarity against Spotify, noting that she has done so in the past.

“The reason for wanting to speak with miss Swift is that she is the only one who has successfully kicked Spotifys a–,” Crosby wrote. “The only one. I think she could give us good advice. This isn’t over.”

As Spotify’s stock plummeted, Daniel Ek reportedly stated in a company town hall that he doesn’t agree with Joe Rogan’s controversial podcast either, even if it is the number one podcast in both the U.S. and the U.K.

In a transcript of the company town hall published by The Verge, Daniel Ek noted that “there are many things that Joe Rogan says that I strongly disagree with and find very offensive.”

However, he added that “if we want even a shot at achieving our bold ambitions, it will mean having content on Spotify that many of us may not be proud to be associated with.”

“Not anything goes,” he clarified. “But there will be opinions, ideas, and beliefs that we disagree with strongly and even make us angry or sad.”

With up to 11 million listeners per episode, it seems that Spotify is stuck between a rock and a hard place. As more artists pull their music off the streaming service, shares of the company were down 17% in New York on Thursday. With subscriber growth slowing and people canceling their accounts in protest against Joe Rogan, it seems that Ek is walking a fine line between free speech and establishing boundaries.

According to the transcript, Ek said, “We needed to find leverage, and one way we could do this was in the form of exclusives. To be frank, had we not made some of the choices we did, I am confident that our business wouldn’t be where it is today.”

“It is important to note that we do not have creative control over Joe Rogan’s content,” he continued. “We don’t approve his guests in advance, and just like any other creator, we get his content when he publishes, and then we review it, and if it violates our policies, we take the appropriate enforcement actions.”

As The Blast previously reported, Ek posted a statement to Spotify’s website to announce that they were going to start adding content advisories to podcast episodes that contained discussions about COVID-19.

He wrote that they are working to add “a content advisory to any podcast episode that includes a discussion about COVID-19.”

“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,” he continued. “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.”

Ek also said that Spotify “has been biased toward action” and said that they had been promoting vaccine and COVID-19 awareness since the early days of the pandemic.

“I want you to know that from the very first days of the pandemic, Spotify has been biased toward action,” he continued. “We launched a variety of educational resources and campaigns to raise awareness and we developed and promoted a global COVID-19 Information Hub.”

“We donated ad inventory to various organizations for vaccine awareness, funds to the World Health Organization and COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) to increase vaccine equity and supported the Go Give One fundraising campaign,” he added. “And we established a music relief project to support the creative community. While this is not a complete list, I hope it gives you a sense of how seriously we’ve approached the pandemic as a company.”

“I trust our policies, the research and expertise that inform their development, and our aspiration to apply them in a way that allows for broad debate and discussion, within the lines,” he went on. “We take this seriously and will continue to partner with experts and invest heavily in our platform functionality and product capabilities for the benefit of creators and listeners alike.”

He concluded, “That doesn’t mean that we always get it right, but we are committed to learning, growing, and evolving.”