After Neil Young and fellow music legends like Joni Mitchell began pulling their music from Spotify in protest of the platform allowing Joe Rogan to spread COVID misinformation, CEO Daniel Ek held a town hall with concerned employees this week. Unfortunately, the answers Ek provided did not sit well with employees as the CEO repeatedly touted Rogan’s presence on Spotify as key to the company’s success. Ek also said that Spotify doesn’t own Rogan’s content, they license it, so they have no control over his words. (Although, they can choose to pull certain episodes, as they’ve done in the past.)
Despite agreeing with employees that many things Rogan says are “very offensive,” Ek was clear at the town hall that The Joe Rogan Experience brings in a substantial amount of subscribers and Spotify has no interest in rocking that boat. Here’s how Ek responded after frustrated employees asked how the company can reconcile its commitment to diversity while Rogan says things like only people who 100 percent African can say they’re Black. Via The Verge:
“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,” he says. “Not anything goes, but there will be opinions, ideas, and beliefs that we disagree with strongly and even makes us angry or sad.”
If that sounds familiar, it’s the same approach Netflix took when Dave Chappelle was embroiled in controversy: As long as the views and listeners are coming in, everyone should be happy because the company is making money.
Clearly, the employees on the ground are starting to feel differently.
(Via The Verge)