Spotify CEO Daniel Ek Speaks Out About Joe Rogan Controversy & Changing COVID Policies

Spotify-exclusive podcast The Joe Rogan Experience this week, both on-stage and during an episode of the podcast itself.Rogan’s podcast recently prompted protest from the likes of Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash and Nils Lofgren, with the musicians pulling their catalogues from the streaming platform.Young sparked the exodus late last month, when he requested his music be taken off Spotify, citing the platform “spreading false information about vaccines” and specifically targeting Rogan.It came after hundreds of scientists and medical professionals asked Spotify to address COVID misinformation on its platform, sparked by comments made on Rogan’s podcast – calling the host’s actions “not only objectionable and offensive but also medically and culturally dangerous”.In response, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said that, while the platform wouldn’t be severing ties with the controversial figure, they would be adding content advisories to podcast episodes which discussed COVID-19, directing users to their dedicated information hub.Rogan himself addressed the boycott on Instagram, telling fans: “I don’t always get it right. I will do my best to try to balance out these more controversial viewpoints with other people perspectives so we can maybe find a better point of view.”Shortly after, Rogan found himself embroiled in controversy again when songwriter India.Arie shared a video that compiled instances the podcast host had used the N-word on his podcast.

Joe Rogan, 54, addressed his recent controversies, including his anti-COVID vaccine rhetoric on his Spotify podcast, during a stand-up show in Austin, Texas on Feb. 8. The former actor and UFC commentator told the live audience he “talks shit for a living,” which is why he finds it “so baffling” that his listeners would rely on his opinions about the vaccines.

Jeremy Clarkson has weighed in on recent discussions concerning Spotify's decision not to back down from giving the likes of Joe Rogan a platform to share their views on matters concerning the Covid vaccine.The streaming giant has been under heavy scrutiny in the past few weeks, with artists such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell having pulled their discography from the platform.Among many other musicians, the pair were left disappointed upon seeing Spotify defend Joe, who some say has used his Joe Rogan Podcast to spread misinformation about the Covid vaccine.In a statement last week, Spotify boss Daniel Ek said: "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, but there will be opinions, ideas, and beliefs that we disagree with strongly and even makes us angry or sad."American actress Sharon Stone has since weighed in with her thoughts on the matter as she deemed Joe to be "dangerous" and "risking people's lives with his idiocy" for how he has spoken about Covid on his podcast. "I just want to say COVID is not an opinion-based situation, and Mr Rogan thinking that his opinion or a disclaimer for the lives that he personally has affected and caused losses of, it's not an opinion," she told a TMZ cameraman in LA last week."Mr Rogan is risking people's lives with his idiocy and his professing that his thoughts about COVID are opinions, they aren't opinions."And while Jeremy is very much for the idea of giving people the right to express their thoughts and feelings whichever way they see fit, in his latest column for The Sun, the TV personality couldn't help but to agree with Sharon. "Sharon Stone has

Steve Albini has called on Joe Rogan to follow the example of Insane Clown Posse, as Rogan continues to face a backlash over the content of his Spotify podcast.Rogan recently apologised after it emerged that he had used the N-word multiple times on his show, calling it “the most regretful and shameful thing I’ve had to talk about publicly” before arguing that the clips had been “taken out of context of 12 years of conversations on my podcast”.He was already under fire after Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and more removed their music from Spotify in response to vaccine misinformation promoted by guests on his show, which has been exclusive to the streaming platform since a $100million deal was struck in 2020.On Monday (February 7), Albini shared an interview with Insane Clown Posse’s Violent J from 2020 in which the musician acknowledged problematic lyrics in the band’s music.Discussing ICP’s 2000 collaboration with Three 6 Mafia, which contains the line “sick like a diseased Ethiopian,” Violent J told Stereogum: “I was that stupid. I didn’t understand the offensiveness in that.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorJoe Rogan weighed in again on the controversy over his repeated use of the N-word on his podcast — and Spotify’s removal of 70 past episodes because of “racially insensitive language” — and played the victim card.Last Friday, Spotify pulled 70 past episodes “The Joe Rogan Experience” from its platform, which the streamer said it did at the request of Rogan and his team. That came after singer India Arie last week said she was pulling her music and podcasts off Spotify, citing Rogan’s “language around race”; she reposted a video on Instagram compiling 24 times Rogan used the N-word on his podcast, and the clip soon went viral.Rogan addressed the situation in Tuesday’s episode of his podcast.

Spotify and FC Barcelona are reportedly close to agreeing a sponsorship deal, according to a radio station based in the Spanish city.The football club announced back in September that it has debts of more than £1billion, and they are said to now be in talks with the streaming service over a £237million deal.The purported three-year deal would see Spotify’s name appear on the shirts of both the men’s and women’s teams, and their training kits. It would also be prefixed to the football giant’s stadium name, which would then be known as the Spotify Nou Camp.As well as reports from the radio station RACI (via The Times), a Catalan journalist has also shared a photo online of executives from Spotify meeting with Juli Guiu, FC Barcelona’s vice president of marketing, at the stadium.If the deal is closed successfully, it could make for some positive news for the streaming platform, which has been embroiled in controversy recently surrounding its exclusive The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.Rogan was called out for spreading “misinformation” about the COVID-19 vaccine on the show, while clips later resurfaced online of him using racial slurs and making racist comments on the programme.

Barcelona fans are disgusted at the Nou Camp's proposed new name following the club’s £237million sponsorship agreement with Spotify.The Catalan side have agreed a three-season deal with the streaming service, according to RAC1, which will see the Spotify logo emblazoned across their jerseys starting from next season.But the Catalonia-based radio station also revealed the Blaugrana’s iconic stadium may also have to change its name to the Spotify Nou Camp as part of the proposed new deal.And Barcelona fans have taken to social media to slam the decision despite the club being in financial turmoil and requiring additional revenue from commercial investors.One fan wrote on Twitter: “Call me out of date/touch etc but get this in the bin and not the recycling one either.”Another Barcelona supporter tweeted: “Barcelona ‘in £237m Spotify deal’ that will result in stadium being called the ‘Spotify Nou Camp’, a name that approximately zero fans will use.”A third added: “Just no. Cheapens the name of a great stadium”Yet the deal is reportedly likely to go through with Spotify owner Daniel Ek, who previously expressed his interest in football by launching a £1.8billion to buy Arsenal from Stan Kroenke.Do you think Barcelona have sold their soul in recent years? Let us know in the comments section.Want to be on the ball with all of the latest football news?Well then sign up for the brilliant Daily Star football email newsletter!From the latest transfer news to the agenda-setting stories, get it all in your email inbox - don't miss a thing.It only takes a matter of seconds.Simply type your email address into the box at the top of this article and hit 'subscribe'.And that's it, job done.

Spotify over their alleged support of vaccine misinformation, Neil Young has encouraged workers at Spotify – as well as fellow musicians – to step away from the streaming giant.“In our communication age, misinformation is the problem,” he wrote in a statement to his website yesterday (February 7). “Ditch the misinformers. Find a good clean place to support with your monthly checks.

In his latest salvo against Spotify, rocker Neil Young is urging musicians, creators and even employees to abandon the streaming service, telling Spotify workers to “get out of that place before it eats up your soul.”

Zack Sharf Neil Young has urged Spotify employees to quit the company in the wake of the fallout involving Joe Rogan, which has spiraled from the podcaster’s use of his platform to air Covid-19 misinformation to his earlier, frequent use of a racial slur on his show. Young is now targeting Spotify CEO Daniel Ek as the company’s chief problem.“To the musicians and creators in this world, I say this: You must be able to find a better place than Spotify to be the home of your art,” Young wrote in a post on his Neil Young Archives site.

Taking a stand. Amid the controversy surrounding Spotify’s support of comedian Joe Rogan and his podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” many stars have decided to pull their content from the streaming service in protest.

One of Joe Rogan’s biggest critics, India Arie, said that she doesn’t believe in cancel culture and isn't asking for the podcaster to be censored, despite taking her music off of Spotify’s platform. Rogan is one of the streaming service's biggest stars, with a contract that could earn him more than $100 million. However, Arie joined artists like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell in asking that their music be removed from the platform due to its inclusion of "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has moved to condemn comedian and podcast host Joe Rogan after another week of controversy. Over the weekend video clips of Rogan repeatedly using racial slurs, and laughing when white guests did the same, went viral.

Arcade Fire multi-instrumentalist Will Butler has penned an op-ed piece in which he discusses the issues surrounding Spotify and its current situation with Joe Rogan.In January, hundreds of scientists and medical professionals asked Spotify to address COVID-19 misinformation on its platform, sparked by comments made on The Joe Rogan Experience. The 270-plus members of the science and medical community signed an open letter, which called Rogan’s actions “not only objectionable and offensive but also medically and culturally dangerous”.Following the publishing of that letter, Neil Young demanded his music be “immediately” removed from the platform, with many high-profile artists like Joni Mitchell, David Crosby and Graham Nash following suit.Since then, a consumer poll from Forrester Research has found that 19 per cent of the streaming service’s customers have since cancelled their subscriptions, or plan to in the near future.

Harry and Meghan Markle "fake" and "braindead" over their multi-million dollar Spotify deal. The couple have received increasing pressure to abandon their partnership with the streaming service after it hosted anti-vaccination content made by US commentator Joe Rogan.Rogan was accused of spreading misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines, which have been proven to be safe to use and effective against the virus.

Spotify‘s royalty rates.The under-fire streaming service’s model means that a single stream of a song, and the revenue that brings in, is activated after just 30 seconds of airtime.As such, The Pocket Gods have decided to release a new album of songs that are all around the 30-second mark, inspired by an article in the i by New York-based music professor Mike Errico, who said that Spotify’s methods surrounding what constitutes a stream could signal the end of the three-minute pop song.“I saw the article and it made me think, ‘Why write longer songs when we get paid little enough for just 30 seconds?’,” The Pocket Gods frontman Mark Christopher Lee told i News.The new album – ‘1000×30 – Nobody Makes Money Anymore’ – directly references Spotify’s business model, and as such Lee says that it means the band “run the risk of being thrown off the platform”.Of the process of writing the album, he added: “We wrote and recorded 1,000 songs, each a shade over 30 seconds long for the album. The longest is 36 seconds.

Spotify boss Daniel Ek has sent a letter to company staff saying he “strongly condemns” Joe Rogan’s use of racial slurs, but that removing his podcast is “not the answer”.It comes after the streaming service reportedly removed 70 episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience that see the comedian using racist slurs.Last week (February 4) India.Aria shared a compilation of clips that featured Rogan using the N-word repeatedly and describing a Black neighbourhood as being similar to the Planet Of The Apes movie.Rogan has since apologised, telling his Instagram followers. “There’s been a lot of shit from the old episodes of the podcast that I wish I hadn’t said, or had said differently.

Battling criticism for hosting The Joe Rogan Experience, a podcast denounced for the propagation of Covid-19 vaccine misinformation and Rogan’s use of the N-word in 70 episodes, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek released a memo to his employees expressing how “deeply sorry” he is for the way the podcast affected his employees.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorSpotify CEO Daniel Ek, under fire from critics inside and outside the company over its partnership with Joe Rogan, said in a memo to employees that was “deeply sorry” for how the controversy over the podcast host has affected them.But in the wake of the company removing 70 past episodes of his podcast and Rogan’s use of the N-word on his show, Ek signaled that Spotify does not plan to end its deal to distribute “The Joe Rogan Experience.”“I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer… canceling voices is a slippery slope,” he wrote in the memo Sunday, which was obtained by Variety.Ek said he is “committing to an incremental investment of $100 million for the licensing, development, and marketing of music (artists and songwriters) and audio content from historically marginalized groups.” “If we believe in having an open platform as a core value of the company, then we must also believe in elevating all types of creators, including those from underrepresented communities and a diversity of backgrounds,” the CEO wrote.Rogan has been a controversial figure ever since Spotify inked its exclusive deal with him in 2020, his hosting of right-wing personalities on “The Joe Rogan Experience.” The latest controversy over coronavirus misinformation on Rogan’s podcast has gone beyond the low-boil level that has previously accompanied outrage over comments on his podcast. That was led by Neil Young, who demanded Spotify pull his songs or drop Rogan, and has been followed by a few other artists and creators.According to Ek, Spotify has had conversations “with Joe and his team about some of the content in his show, including his history of using some racially insensitive language.

Whitney Cummings is sharing her thoughts on the Joe Rogan Spotify debate.

Spotify has taken down 113 episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience after an old clip of him using the 'n-word' resurfaced.