Neil Younger received’t change Spotify’s thoughts about Joe Rogan

Generally it’s arduous to foretell the longer term.

Different instances it’s very easy: Again within the spring of 2020, it was extremely apparent that by paying Joe Rogan a ton of cash for the unique rights to his podcast, Spotify would inevitably discover itself beneath hearth. As a result of a giant a part of Rogan’s attraction — we don’t know the way huge his viewers is, however double-digit thousands and thousands appears cheap — is courting controversy by interviewing the likes of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

Certain sufficient, the listing of individuals criticizing Spotify over its Rogan deal — and the content material Rogan has put out since then — contains Spotify’s personal staff, who complained that his podcast is transphobic, and 270 docs and different well being consultants, who wrote an open letter saying Rogan’s podcasts have been “mass-misinformation occasions” which were “upsetting mistrust in science and medication” through the pandemic, for internet hosting the likes of Robert Malone, an anti-vaxxer who’s been banned by Twitter.

And now rock star Neil Younger, who mentioned these docs’ open letter opened his eyes to the “harmful life-threatening Covid falsehoods present in Spotify programming,” has taken his music off the service in protest.

So. How huge a deal is that this?

Right here’s one knowledge level: My brother-in-law simply texted me asking for suggestions for a brand new streaming service. Younger’s argument — that by paying for Rogan’s podcast, “Spotify has develop into the house of life-threatening Covid misinformation. Lies being bought for cash” — has hit residence for him. (For the file, you may nonetheless discover Younger’s music on Amazon, Apple, and each different streaming platform.)

Right here’s a competing knowledge level – an inventory of distinguished musicians following Younger’s lead and pulling their catalogs from Spotify as nicely:

It’s doable, after all, that issues may change. Again when Neil Younger was making well-liked music within the Sixties and ’70s, well-known musicians routinely made political arguments, and typically even put their very own livelihoods in danger in doing so. The Nixon administration, for example, put John Lennon beneath FBI surveillance and at one level tried to deport him due to his work protesting the Vietnam Struggle.

However that stage of activism is sort of utterly absent from at present’s lineup of well-liked musicians, who will typically tweet about issues they don’t like however usually depart it at that. Taylor Swift has fought with Spotify, Apple, and a music supervisor who purchased the rights to her catalog, however these disputes have been all about cash and management, not ideology or vaccines.

To his credit score, Younger — a famously cantankerous character who has complained about streaming for years — is clear-eyed about what his pullout will imply: “I sincerely hope that different artists could make a transfer, however I can’t actually anticipate that to occur,” he wrote on his web site this week.

So until there are quite a bit of individuals like my brother-in-law, anticipate Spotify to do what it has performed each time folks have complained about their cope with Rogan: nothing.

Spotify is betting billions of {dollars} that podcasting will probably be a significant enterprise, and Rogan is the most important podcaster on this planet. It must take a lot, way more than the absence of a legacy act that hasn’t launched a preferred tune since 1989 to get it to vary course.

Spotify will take problem with that characterization, after all. It says it takes all these items very critically, and routinely examines content material on its service to see if it violates content material insurance policies, which it has but to reveal publicly. Right here, for the file, is the corporate’s assertion:

“We would like all of the world’s music and audio content material to be accessible to Spotify customers. With that comes nice duty in balancing each security for listeners and freedom for creators. We have now detailed content material insurance policies in place and we’ve eliminated over 20,000 podcast episodes associated to COVID-19 because the begin of the pandemic. We remorse Neil’s determination to take away his music from Spotify, however hope to welcome him again quickly.”

It’s value stating right here that Spotify, like different tech corporations that distribute media, is essentially uncomfortable making choices about what sort of media it does and doesn’t need to distribute. See, for example, its 2018 determination to take away musicians like R. Kelly — who had lengthy been accused of sexual misconduct — from its playlists however not from the service itself. After a couple of weeks of criticism from artists and managers, it deserted the coverage. (Kelly was convicted on racketeering and intercourse trafficking prices three years later; his music stays on Spotify.)

And whereas Spotify usually argues that, similar to YouTube, Twitter, or Fb, it’s merely a impartial platform that connects creators with individuals who need to interact with the stuff these creators make, that argument doesn’t work in Rogan’s case: Whereas he’s not technically working for Spotify, he’s very a lot getting paid by them, to make stuff you may’t hear wherever however Spotify.

However to date that distinction hasn’t mattered. Now and again, Spotify will get requested about Rogan, and the corporate solutions with the equal of a shrug. “For us, it’s about having a various voice of individuals, for a world viewers,” content material chief Daybreak Ostroff informed me a 12 months in the past. “And he occurs to stay wildly well-liked.”

Anticipate extra inquiries to come up subsequent week, when Spotify declares its quarterly earnings. Don’t anticipate a unique reply.