N-word used: Spotify’s Joe Rogan scandal is getting bigger and 100 million more expensive

Controversial podcaster
Now the N-word: Spotify’s scandal surrounding Joe Rogan is getting bigger – and 100 million more expensive

by Malte Mansholt
2/7/2022, 7:02 p.m

The headwind for Spotify is not abating. Just a week after podcaster Joe Rogan came under criticism for unqualified statements about the corona pandemic, the next scandal is now pending. Rogan is said to have used racist terms and comparisons on some episodes of his 13-year podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. The streaming service is demonstratively behind him. And at the same time tries to appease his critics with gestures.

The accusation of racism drew attention to the withdrawal of the musician India Arie. As part of the controversy surrounding Neil Young’s loud farewell to the platform, she gave her own reasons for following Young on Instagram – and showed a good dozen video excerpts that at least certify Rogan’s highly questionable handling of racist terms: He uses them again and again in various conversations bluntly the N-word. What could still be seen as a lack of sensitivity to the force of the word is weighted differently by a comparison in another program: Rogan laughingly compared getting off the bus in a predominantly black district with a visit to the planet of the apes .

Remorseful Rogan

On Sunday, Rogan spoke up himself. And shows remorse. “I wish I hadn’t said a lot of the shit I said in older episodes of the podcast,” the description reads. Rogan explains in the video that the racial slur was not used in a derogatory way, but rather in a conversation about black comedians like Richard Pryor, who used the word regularly. “I thought in context people could place it.”

Today he would see it differently, he asserts. Instead of reproducing the racist term, he should have said “the N-word” instead. He regretted the comparison with the Planet of the Apes even faster. He immediately recognized him as racist and said so on the show. However, the episode has not been available for a long time because the course of the conversation did not suit him.

This is how Spotify reacts

Numerous other episodes have also disappeared: more than 70 episodes of “Experience” were surprisingly deleted from the Spotify archive last week, in addition to more than 40 older episodes that had already been sorted out when moving to Spotify. In fact, the additional episodes were deleted at Rogan’s request, confirmed Spotify boss Daniel Ek in an internal memo from the company that is available to various media.

In the nightly message, he addresses the employees directly. “I can’t put into words how sorry I am for the extent to which the controversy surrounding the ‘Joe Rogan Experience’ continues to affect you,” he apologized. “Some of Joe Rogan’s statements are not only incredibly hurtful – I want to make it clear that they do not reflect the values ​​of this company,” said the Spotify boss.

No eviction

But he doesn’t want to throw out the star podcaster. “I don’t think the answer should be to shut up Joe,” he explains. The company wants to set clear boundaries for content, “but silencing voices completely can quickly take you too far.” Instead, one should rather decide on a case-by-case basis, suggests Ek.

But it seems clear to him that that would not be enough. The debate about freedom of expression on Spotify is not new, the streaming service has repeatedly faced allegations of not doing enough against the music of right-wing bands on the platform. With regard to Rogan, Ek now wants to set an example: Spotify will put 100 million dollars in support of marginalized groups and minorities, he promised.

Rogan is too important for Spotify

Of course, the number is no coincidence: it corresponds exactly to the sum that Spotify reportedly paid almost two years ago for the exclusive rights to Rogan’s podcast. The fact that the group is now charging Rogan the same amount again is also a symbol of how important the controversial podcaster is for the company. After all, you could have just put him on the door for 100 million less.

But Rogan is one of the most important building blocks of the new direction of the group. Spotify has recognized how important podcasts have become as a medium – and that the audio broadcasts are not heard instead of but in addition to music. In plain language, this means that as long as Spotify remains the most important stage for podcasts, not only more users will be added. The existing ones also spend even more time on the platform. And the viewing charts leave no doubt: no other podcast succeeds as well as Joe Rogans.

Sources:Joe Rogan (Instagram), Los Angeles Times, The Verge, Twitter