Spotify’s content warnings for podcasts will fall short in addressing misinformation

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If following entertainment news is one of your passions, it should not be shocking how much attention music platform Spotify garnered from its partnership with commentator Joe Rogan and his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. 

Rogan has had a history of spreading COVID-19 misinformation online, most recently when his podcast featured Dr. Robert Malone, who has been known for his faulty views about vaccines. As a result of Rogan featuring Malone, scientists and doctors issued a letter to express their concerns to Spotify. Artists like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pulled their music from the service entirely to protest the false and inaccurate COVID-19 claims on Rogan’s show.

The enormous revenue that’s on the table also gives the company a reason to continue providing a platform for misinformation. Spotify spent $100 million to licence Rogan’s podcast, which will be pivotal for the company’s ambitious goal to expand its brand from music to other types of audio content. 

Even before Rogan, the music streaming platform made multi-million dollar deals to not only amass podcasting assets, but to also compete with Apple and other music services.

It’s obvious that Spotify has developed an insatiable appetite for podcasts by devoting lots of time, energy, and money to fulfilling their agenda. Given its investment history, it’s safe to say that the company has no plans to budge when it comes to acting beyond posting advisories.

Content advisory warnings also fall short because of the lack of modern artists speaking up against content creators promoting misinformation. 

A CTV News analysis concluded that if Spotify’s top 10 most-streamed artists also protested the company, the platform would take Young and Mitchell’s case much more seriously with their revenue at stake. 

None of those top 10 members have left the company yet, and it’s especially doubtful that any newer artists just starting their careers will join Young and Mitchell. Current artists rely heavily on Spotify for their success, from their royalties to promoting music for the platform’s roughly 400 million users. Leaving the platform or retracting songs from the service is incredibly difficult since artists can only speak about these matters with their labels, not Spotify, directly. 

There’s also the fear of losing trust from their fanbase if artists partake in a censorship campaign against Rogan. In other words, this inaction is largely due to artists and their labels having too much to lose, whether it’s streaming income or public perception. 

Spotify opting for ineffective advisories is complicated even more by the grey areas of respecting free speech. Recently, Rogan’s controversies continued to grow from his COVID-19 misinformation to racial slurs in his podcast. 

A few days ago, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said that Rogan chose to take down several episodes of the show reportedly after talking to Spotify about “some of the content in his show, including his history of using some racially insensitive language.”

Despite these issues and his apology for them, Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek refuses to end his partnership with Rogan, acknowledging the importance of having rules for their content creators and not seeking to suppress views from their platform. 

Ek rationalizing a shallow resistance against misinformation with these arguments is no excuse. In the face of concerns for podcasts giving their two cents on COVID-19, he chooses to do little under the guise of representing Spotify’s values as a music platform. 

Furthermore, the built-in complexities behind the entertainment world make it absurdly convenient for Spotify to continually stick with content warnings while millions of dollars. 

What Spotify’s weak response to the controversies from Rogan’s podcast ultimately means for the music industry is that money holds priority over protecting its users from misinformation. Until the company becomes braver in challenging unproven pandemic beliefs, misinformation will continue being a contentious and troublesome topic in people’s lives.