Spotify CEO Responds To Neil Young Boycott And Joe Rogan Controversy

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek responded to the streaming service’s controversy involving Joe Rogan’s spread of COVID misinformation on his podcast, as well as Neil Young and other musicians’ Spotify boycott. The streamer previously announced it will put “content advisory” to all episodes that include COVID information.

According to reporting done by the New York Times, Ek stood by his decision to remove Young from the platform.

“I think the important part here is that we don’t change our policies based on one creator nor do we change it based on any media cycle, or calls from anyone else,” he said. “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. And while Joe has a massive audience – he is actually the number one podcast in more than 90 markets – he also has to abide by those policies.”

Rogan also posted an apology video, promising to have more “experts with differing opinions right after [he has] the controversial ones.”

After #CancelSpotify began trending on Twitter, the company’s stock fell $2 billion in market value last week.

“Obviously, it’s been a few notable days here at Spotify,” Ek said. “There’s no doubt that the last several weeks have presented a number of learning opportunities.

Tara Mobasher: I'm a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign studying journalism and criminology, law, & society.
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