By: Bradley Bostwick
Because of its $100 million man, Joe Rogan, Spotify is now in the crossfire between artists and customers leaving the platform and Rogan’s fans, who would merely claim him to be a victim of “cancel culture.” This controversy stems from allegations that Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, has been spreading misinformation about COVID-19. According to Spotify, Rogan’s podcast is the most popular podcast in the US totaling 200 million downloads per month.
Earlier this year, a letter signed by hundreds of medical experts urged Spotify to crack down on COVID-19 misinformation. The letter specifically highlighted episodes of Rogan’s podcast asserting that Rogan had “repeatedly spread misleading and false claims on his podcast, provoking distrust in science and medicine.” Following the publication of this letter, several artists–most notably Neil Young and Joni Mitchell–pulled their music from Spotify and urged others to do the same. In addition, many podcasters have promised to leave Spotify as well. Most recently, on February 4, a compilation video was posted online showing Joe Rogan using racial slurs on episodes of his podcast that predated his massive Spotify deal.
So far, in response to the Rogan backlash, Spotify has declined to cut ties with Joe Rogan. Instead, it has removed episodes of the podcasts that do not meet its content guidelines, which were just published for the first time. The content guidelines include a section that prohibits content that “promotes dangerous false or dangerous deceptive medical information that may cause offline harm or poses a direct threat to public health.” Additionally, Spotify has added a content warning to podcasts that discuss COVID-19. Spotify’s CEO, Daniel Ek, has also explicitly stated Spotify’s stance that it is not the publisher of Rogan’s podcast and that Spotify will not be taking on the role as a “content sensor.”
Spotify is the world’s most popular music-streaming platform and, like other media giants have learned, it is now discovering that it is not immune to what is said on its platform. Spotify wants to be viewed as a media platform that has limited liability for materials posted by third-party users, but experts claim that is hard to justify after it bought exclusive distribution rights to Joe Rogan’s podcast for $100 million in 2020. Jennifer Grygiel, a Syracuse University communication professor said, “[t]hey are acting like they should get treated as a platform – when they are acting like a media company,” and further added, “[y]ou can’t have it every way you want.” Podcasts platforms have declined to follow the steps of other tech companies like Facebook and Twitter to try to moderate content that has been posted. For example, Facebook employs journalists, academics, contract employees, and AI technology to detect misinformation.
The Rogan controversy has once again sparked the debate between platform versus publisher and what duties each title carries with them. While Spotify has come dangerously close to crossing over to a publisher by purchasing the exclusive rights to The Joe Rogan Experience, Daniel Ek and Spotify will likely hold their ground and remain sedentary on their position as a platform; thus avoiding any responsibility to sensor their content. Spotify will likely refrain from taking any further action for several business-related reasons. First, Spotify generates most of its revenue from subscriptions, unlike other ad-supported platforms; therefore, it is unlikely to suffer severe financial distress from the current controversy unless a wave of cancellations pursues. This wave is unlikely based on the minor amount of Netflix cancellations following the Dave Chappelle controversy last year. Second, if Spotify were to cut ties with Rogan, not only would it impact revenue, it would also be sending a “chilling message to other podcasters that the company won’t have their back.” Such a message would be detrimental to business as Spotify currently dominates podcasting, holding 44% of all podcast user market share compared to its competitors–Apple, Amazon, and Google–that are each less than half Spotify’s size. Spotify will likely put its business needs first and continue to back Joe Rogan throughout this controversy and avoid becoming a content sensor.
Nonetheless, by backing Joe Rogan, Spotify is running the risk of having more popular artists abandon its platform. In practice, this remains much more complicated because record labels, not musicians, usually control the streaming rights, but it is still possible that Young’s and Mitchell’s move could cause a domino effect.
Student Bio: Bradley Bostwick is a second-year law student at Suffolk University Law School. He is a staffer on the Journal of High Technology Law. Bradley received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics with a Minor in Finance from Syracuse University.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are the views of the author alone and do not represent the views of JHTL or Suffolk University Law School.
