Spotify just lost two more artists over Joe Rogan controversy

Spotify simply lost two more artists over Joe Rogan controversy

Joe Rogan and India Aire in Spotify dispute

(Image credit: David Crotty/Patrick McMullan/Michael S. Schwartz/Getty/Shutterstock)

Spotify's problems extend beyond the divergence of Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. 2 more artists have announced that they'll be pulling their music from the popular streaming service in the wake of ongoing controversy surrounding Joe Rogan's podcast The Joe Rogan Experience and how it's handling data surrounding Covid-19.

Graham Nash and Bharat Arie both announced that they're pulling their music off Spotify, citing the company's inaction regarding Covid-xix misinformation and racial content shared on The Joe Rogan Experience. Young and Mitchell already removed their music last week over objections near discredited Covid-19 claims aired during the podcast. Nils Lofgren has done likewise.

While the master backlash surrounding Rogan has been centered on questionable comments regarding COVID-19 vaccines, Arie has pointed out on Instagram that her primary reason for removing her music from Spotify is his contempo statements most race. "I believe in freedom of speech," said the R&B vocaliser-songwriter. "Notwithstanding, I find Joe Rogan problematic for reasons other than his Covid interviews. For me, it's also his language around race."

Arie is referring to a chat betwixt Rogan and controversial psychologist Jordan Peterson final month during an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience. "At that place's such a spectrum of shades of people," Rogan said. "Unless you're talking to someone who is, like, 100% African, from the darkest identify, where they are not wearing any clothes all day and they've developed all that melanin to protect themselves from the sun. You lot know, even the term Black is weird. When yous use it for people who are literally my color, information technology becomes very strange."

In her statement, Aerie noted the disparity Spotify pays artists in royalties versus what the company shelled out to make Rogan'south podcast a Spotify exclusive. "What I am talking about is respect — who gets information technology and who doesn't," Arie's statement continued. "Paying musicians a fraction of a penny? And him $100 [million]? This shows the blazon of company they are and the company that they keep. I'thou tired."

In the wake of the controversy, Rogan published a x-minute video on his Instagram wherein he stated, "I'one thousand not trying to promote misinformation. I'thou not trying to be controversial. I've never tried to do annihilation with this podcast other than merely talk to people and take interesting conversations." Rogan added that he feels information technology'south important that he "makes certain that I've researched these topics – the controversial ones in detail – and have all the pertinent facts at hand earlier I hash out them."

Despite this apparent attempts to de-escalate the situation, it's clear that some artists don't feel Rogan'due south statement was sufficient and would rather pull their music from Spotify unless the visitor removes The Joe Rogan Experience from its service. So far, nonetheless, the only hint of change comes from Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, who said in a statement this week that the company has "an obligation to do more to provide residual and access to widely-accepted information from the medical and scientific communities guiding united states through this unprecedented time."

"These bug are incredibly complex," Ek added. "Nosotros've heard yous – especially those from the medical and scientific communities."

Equally it stands, it seems unlikely that Spotify will take any serious action confronting Rogan's podcast, which could get out the door open for more artists to potentially leave the platform in the coming weeks.

Adjacent, meet why one of our staff writers decided to ditch Spotify . Hint: it's not because of this controversy.

Billy Givens is a journalist with almost two decades of experience in editing and writing across a wide variety of topics. He focuses specially on games coverage for Tom's Guide and other sites including From Gamers Mag, Retroware, Game Bluster and TechRaptor. He's also written for self-improvement sites such as Lifehack and produced in-depth analyses on subjects such equally wellness, psychology and entertainment.