Spotify CEO condemns podcaster’s racial slurs, but says he won’t intervene

On Sunday night, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek addressed Joe Rogan’s use of racial slurs, telling staff in a memo that while he found the comments “incredibly hurtful” and inconsistent with the company’s values, he didn’t believe that “muting” the podcaster was the answer.

Ek’s comments come as Spotify faces an unprecedented crisis over Rogan’s rhetoric about race and Covid-19, which has embroiled the company in controversy and prompted a growing number of artists and podcasters to abandon the platform.

Rogan, who vowed last week to do better when discussing matters related to the pandemic, apologized Saturday morning after a video compilation of him using racial slurs was widely shared on social media.

Rogan said he is “not racist” and has not used such language in recent years. He admitted in an Instagram video posted to his account that he acted inappropriately, although he said the videos posted online took him out of context.

Rogan admitted, however, that “anytime you’re in a situation where you have to say ‘I’m not racist,’ you screwed up, and I clearly screwed up.”

Spotify struck a deal in 2020 with Rogan to exclusively have his wildly popular podcast on the platform. The Wall Street Journal reported that the deal was worth more than $100 million.

In a note to staff on Sunday night, which Spotify provided to CNN Business, Ek said he would be committing “an incremental investment of $100 million for music licensing, development and marketing (artists and songwriters) and audio content from historically marginalized groups.”

It’s unclear, however, whether such an action will end the Rogan-related controversy. Critics have called for much tougher measures, with many calling for the company to fire the podcaster.

Ek said Sunday night that Rogan’s comments “do not represent the values ​​of this company” and that Spotify had engaged in “conversations with Joe and his team about some of the content on his show, including his history of using some language racially.” insensitive”.

“Following these discussions and his own reflections, he chose to remove several episodes from Spotify,” said Ek.

More than 100 episodes of Rogan’s show were deleted from the podcaster’s library, according to JRE Missing, a website that tracks the show.

Ek apologized to the team for how the controversy “continues to impact” each of them.

“I deeply regret that you are carrying so much of this burden,” Ek said. “I also want to be transparent in setting the expectation that in order to achieve our goal of becoming the global audio platform, these types of disputes will be inevitable.”

Spotify’s CEO said balancing “creator expression with user safety” is something he’s been thinking about and that he asked teams to “expand the number of outside experts” they consult in such efforts.

Ek and Spotify have been unsuccessfully trying to end the controversy surrounding Rogan’s podcast for weeks.

Neil Young was the first recording artist to ask for his music to be removed from the platform on January 25th. Joni Mitchell followed soon after and other musicians and podcasters continued to join the growing boycott.