The CEO of Spotify has addressed the controversy that’s arisen since Neil Young removed his music from the streaming platform last week, citing Rogan’s podcast which shared misinformation about COVID vaccines as the reason.
As reported by Los Angeles Times, Daniel Ek told employees that it doesn’t sensor The Joe Rogan Experience because Spotify is a platform to deliver Rogan’s content, rather than a publisher.
“Spotify doesn’t approve Rogan’s guest list, they don’t look at his content until it goes up, and so they don’t have editing power … They just look at it after it’s already on the platform and remove it if it doesn’t meet guidelines.”
Ek elaborated, saying that their policies are carefully thought out.
“We don’t change our policies based on one creator, nor do we change that based on any media cycle or calls from anyone else,” he said at the meeting. “Our policies have been carefully written with the input from numbers of internal and external experts in this space, and I do believe they’re right for our platform.”
He added: “usually when we have controversies in the past, those are measured in months, not days,” Ek said. “But I feel good about where we are in relation to that and top-line trends look healthy still.”
“We are building the platform that will enable the whole ecosystem to work together on a global scale,” Ek said. “So think of it as 50 million small and medium-sized businesses that we can support by giving them the infrastructure and resources to grow.”
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Last week, Neil Young penned a letter on his website telling Spotify they would have to pick between having his music, or Joe Rogan’s podcast. Shortly after, he removed his catalogue from the streaming platform.
“I want you to let Spotify know immediately today that I want all of my music off their platform. They can have Rogan or Young. Not both,” he said in the now deleted letter.
Since then, a number of additional artists have pulled their music off Spotify.
