- Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek says Joe Rogan’s comments don’t represent the values of the company
- The hosting platform paid $100million for exclusive licensing rights to Rogan’s show
- Ek wrote a memo to staff condemning Rogan’s past comments and confirmed the removal of 113 episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast
- But Ek said he won’t silence Rogan: ‘We should have clear lines around content and take action when they are crossed, but canceling voices is a slippery slope’
- Ek added Spotify will will invest $100 million towards ‘the licensing, development, and marketing of music (artists and songwriters) and audio content from historically marginalized groups’
- On Saturday, Rogan was forced to respond to a compilation of resurfaced clips from his podcast in which he used the N-word more than 20 times
Spotify’s top boss says he will not silence Joe Rogan but tells staff that he does not represent the company’s values – despite paying him $100 million in licensing rights for his popular podcast.
In an internal memo sent to staff on Sunday, Daniel Ek apologized to employees for the Joe Rogan Experience’s latest controversy, where more than 100 episodes were pulled after a compilation emerged of the host using the n-word.
This followed the fallout of Neil Young and artists pulling their music from the platform over vaccine misinformation on Rogan’s podcast, which has about 11 million listeners per episode.
‘There are no words I can say to adequately convey how deeply sorry I am for the way The Joe Rogan Experience controversy continues to impact each of you,’ Ek said in the memo. ‘Not only are some of Joe Rogan’s comments incredibly hurtful – I want to make clear that they do not represent the values of this company.