Spotify Has Spent Less Than 10% of the $100 Million Diversity Fund It Pledged During Joe Rogan Controversy

variety.com:

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor In February of last year, as controversy broiled around Joe Rogan’s racially charged language and COVID-related misinformation on multiple editions of his Spotify podcast, the streaming giant’s CEO attempted to defuse the situation by apologizing to his aggrieved staff and pledging $100 million “for the licensing, development, and marketing of music (artists and songwriters) and audio content from historically marginalized groups.” Nearly 14 months later, that $100 million “Creator Equity Fund” has spent less than 10% of its funding on that work,” according to a report in Bloomberg.

The initiative was behind schedule in hiring an eight-person staff to oversee the project and “has suffered from shifting priorities,” the report said, citing unnamed people familiar with the effort.

At the beginning of this year, the fund had not completed its 2023 budget and had not determined its priority projects, according to a memo the publication said it had obtained, and another fund intended to promote diversity in podcasts suffered after that business was hit by layoffs last year, a union representing workers said.

The $100 million was designed to be used over three years, according to Bloomberg’s sources, but the streaming service lacked a well-structured, clear system for vetting and approving projects or allocating money.