Joe Rogan vows to ‘balance things out’ after Spotify misinformation controversy
LA TimesRogan has been the center of a firestorm of controversy over how Spotify manages misinformation about COVID-19 on its audio platform. Recent episodes of “The Joe Rogan Experience” raised alarm among people in the medical community, prompting major artists including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell to pull their music from Spotify to put pressure on the streaming service to take more action. “I love her too.” Spotify became the home of Joe Rogan’s podcast in 2020 after the company reached a multiyear licensing deal with Rogan that is said to be worth roughly $100 million. This month, more than 200 people, including medical professionals and academics, sent a Jan. 10 open letter demanding the service “immediately establish a clear and public policy to moderate misinformation on its platform,” likening Rogan’s most controversial episodes to “mass-misinformation events” of “devastating proportions” that provoke “distrust in science and medicine.” After that letter, Young pulled his music from Spotify and encouraged others to join him. “I sincerely hope that other artists and record companies will move off the SPOTIFY platform and stop supporting SPOTIFY’s deadly misinformation about COVID,” Young said in a statement posted on his website.