It was a real ultimatum. On Wednesday, singer Neil Young asked his label Warner to threaten Spotify with removing his tracks if the platform maintained Joe Rogan’s podcast. He no longer wanted to appear on a service where certain content circulates false information about Covid vaccines. The streaming service’s response was to keep the podcast, and remove the artist’s work.
11 million listeners per episode
It must be said that Joe Rogan is the most listened to podcaster in the United States. Each of its episodes reaches 11 million listeners. Which explains why Spotify paid $100 million to take him under contract in 2020. He even became the cornerstone of his podcast business, capable of attracting ever more audiences and advertisers.
Former sportsman and TV host, Joe Rogan started podcasting in 2009 and fuels his popularity thanks to an anti-establishment posture without being part of a party. He likes to surprise his audience and shock.
Elon Musk had thus found himself smoking a joint on the air with him. He also regularly gives the floor to antivax. Which earned Spotify a letter of protest from several hundred scientists and medical professionals earlier this month.
Neil Young calls on other artists to follow her
Opposite, Neil Young is an icon of the song, but also a heavyweight in the music industry. Its absence from Spotify’s catalog will be a stain, especially since it had 2.4 million subscribers and had 6 million monthly listeners. His fans may well be tempted to go to other platforms to continue to access his works.
Neil Young called on other artists to follow him. Without success so far. In the meantime, he is taking the risk of depriving himself of 60% of his streaming listens, Spotify being the leader in the world music streaming market.
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The service officially regrets the departure of Neil Young. He also weakly defends his own position by advocating freedom of expression, and his duty to represent a plurality of points of view.
However, in 2018, Spotify had tried to put in place a policy of moderation against hate speech and reprehensible conduct by artists. This had caused an outcry in the world of music. Spotify’s massive investment in podcasting could well force it to come back to this subject, faced with the same content moderation issues as Google or Facebook.
Source: The Wall Street Journal