Feb. 7 (UPI) — Spotify’s founder and CEO has apologized to company employees for the impact of the recent controversy involving podcaster Joe Rogan — and said the music streaming service won’t take any action to “silence” him.
Rogan has been the subject of criticism multiple times in recent weeks — first by some musicians, including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, concerned about the spread of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and then for racial epithets Rogan used on podcasts years ago.
Spotify responded to the misinformation controversy by adding content advisories to broadcasts that contain such claims — and removed dozens of past episodes between 2009 and 2018 that preceded COVID-19. On Sunday, CEO Daniel Ek issued the apology to employees for the effect that the negative attention has brought.
“There are no words I can say to adequately convey how deeply sorry I am for the way “The Joe Rogan Experience” controversy continues to impact each of you,” Ek said in his letter, according to CNBC.
“Not only are some of Joe Rogan’s comments incredibly hurtful — I want you to make clear that they do not represent the values of this company. I know this situation leaves many of you feeling drained, frustrated and unheard.”
“I want to make one point very clear — I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer,” Ek added. “We should have clear lines around content and take action when they are crossed, but canceling voices is a slippery slope.”
Ek also said in the letter that Spotify has committed to spending $100 million on music and audio content from historically marginalized groups. Spotify signed Rogan to an exclusive deal in 2020 worth $100 million.
Other artists and podcasters have also removed their content from Spotify, which has cost the company billions in estimated losses. In pulling her music, singer India.Arie shared a video compilation of at least 24 times Rogan used racial slurs.
“For me, [other than misinformation] it’s also his language around race,” she said of why she decided to remover her content.
Rogan issued an apologetic video on Instagram over the weekend.
“It looks [expletive] horrible, even to me,” he said in the video. “I know that to most people there is no context where a White person is ever allowed to say that word, nevermind publicly on a podcast. I agree with that now. I haven’t said it in years.
“I thought as long as it was in context, people would understand what I was doing.”
Rogan has faced criticism in the past for other comments critical of transgender people and for featuring right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes on his program.
