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Spotify CEO Daniel Ek apologized for the “The Joe Rogan Experience controversy” in a recent memo to staff, yet clarified the company will not be dropping the podcast.
“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 told employees Sunday, according to a memo obtained by Axios.
“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.”
The memo comes after a compilation video of Rogan using the N-word on his podcast was shared on social media platforms last week.
While Rogan apologized for using the racial slur, also explaining that he was taken out of context in the video, Ek clarified that Rogan “chose to remove a number of episodes from Spotify.”
“While I strongly condemn what Joe has said and I agree with his decision to remove past episodes from our platform,
Prior to the unearthed clip of Rogan, the host was already in hot water for pushing Covid-19 vaccine misinformation on his podcast.
Stars including Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Graham Nash, their fellow bandmates David Crosby and Stephen Stills, as well as India Arie have all removed their music from Spotify in protest of Rogan’s presence there.
In his Sunday memo, Ek went on to highlight points he made at a town hall held last week, in which he stressed that Spotify is an open platform and that Rogan is vital to achieving the company’s “bold ambitions.”
The CEO then went on to emphasize company values, vowing to invest in audio content from historically marginalized groups:
If we believe in having an open platform as a core value of the company, then we must also believe in elevating all types of creators, including those from underrepresented communities and a diversity of backgrounds. We’ve been doing a great deal of work in this area already but I think we can do even more. So I am committing to an incremental investment of $100 million for the licensing, development, and marketing of music (artists and
songwriters) and audio content from historically marginalized groups. This will dramatically increase our efforts in these areas. While some might want us to pursue a different path, I believe that more speech on more issues can be highly effective in improving the status quo and enhancing the conversation altogether … One of the things I am thinking about is what additional steps we can take to further balance creator expression with user safety. I’ve asked our teams to expand the number of outside experts we consult with on these efforts and look forward to sharing more details.