Spotify chose Joe Rogan's "JRE" podcast over a music artist, with Neil Young departing the platform and his music label as promised by the personality. However, what is the reason behind it? Despite the COVID misinformation brought by Rogan, the famous Swedish music streaming platform chose the podcaster over the musician.
Why Did Spotify Choose Joe Rogan over Neil Young to Remain?
There have been reports regarding Spotify paying Joe Rogan as much as $100 million to have an exclusive license to his podcast, hence it being the one staying in the platform now. Also, some advertisements run through the Joe Rogan Experience that ushers in a massive profit for Spotify whenever the ad plays.
The recent pull-out of Neil Young of Spotify is a call to other artists and record labels.
In the Neil Young Archives, the artist posted a statement to which he told people of what he discovered within the streaming platform and its focus, particularly with its misinformation. Young claimed that this is not a healthy platform and encourages other artists and labels to get away from Spotify and protect their beliefs against COVID.
WHO, Other Entities Support Young's Boycott of Spotify
The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros), thanked and supported Young with his move against Spotify. Here, Gheybreyesus said that everyone "has a role to play" in this current pandemic, including stopping misinformation whenever seeing one or encountering it online.
.@NeilYoungNYA, thanks for standing up against misinformation and inaccuracies around #COVID19 vaccination.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) January 27, 2022
Public and private sector, in particular #socialmedia platforms, media, individuals - we all have a role to play to end this pandemic and infodemic.https://t.co/kcFyIZQF7T
Spotify: Does it Promote COVID Misinformation?
While there are no claims against Spotify now, particularly in promoting COVID misinformation, there have been massive disputes that this kind of information is present in the streaming platform. In one case, health officials called out the Swedish company for the misinformation present here, with the experts saying it should have a clear policy to fight against it.
However, there have been no responses from the company regarding this issue, despite being called out many times.
In addition to that, the "Joe Rogan Experience" also received flags for it being a platform for COVID misinformation and fake news, with the artist having his opinions mixing in with the discussion. The report only showed that the JRE brought misinformation into the platform as early as the pandemic started, with many audiences bearing witness to it.
Revisiting these might indicate that Spotify currently faces a problem and dilemma regarding its branding and COVID policies, primarily as other platforms expel artists that promote misinformation. While Spotify does not directly promote COVID misinformation, it still allows artists like Rogan to stay there and talk about his opinions that are inaccurate to the disease.
Not only is this unethical, but it could be potentially dangerous to those that will believe it.
Read also: Spotify x Neil Young Issue: Streaming Platform Pulls Veteran Rocker's Music After JRE Callout
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Written by Isaiah Richard
