The case Joe Rogan has gone around the world in recent weeks. The controversies surrounding his podcast not only led to the departure of some legendary artists from the Spotify catalog, but also to complaints within the company itself. And although the streaming service has made public its guidelines regarding sensitive content —such as those related to the COVID-19 pandemic—, the feeling remains that it does not end up being all that can be done in a such a specific case. And that is because the Swedish company is playing with an ambiguity that, at least for now, is functional.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the CEO of Spotify, Daniel Ek, gave a new example of this during a message issued to his employees. According to two workers quoted by the aforementioned newspaper, the manager assured that the company does not supervise the content of The Joe Rogan Experience because Spotify is a platform through which the podcast is distributed, but it is not its publisher.
What Ek told his employees is not necessarily a lie, but it could be a half-truth. And this has to do with what we mentioned at the beginning, the ambiguity with which the company is handled, at least in this particular case.
According to the report, the businessman stated that Spotify does not approve of the Joe Rogan podcast's guest list, and that it only reviews episodes once they are posted and available to its more than 300 million users worldwide. world. So, under those parameters, the company has no editorial power other than to verify that the content already disclosed complies with the existing guidelines.
A surprising passivity, right? Especially considering that Spotify would have paid around 100 million dollars in a multi-year contract to have the exclusivity of The Joe Rogan Experience.
Spotify's dubious editorial stance on Joe Rogan
Photo by Agê Barros on Unsplash But on that last point is where Spotify plays its most risky chips. Unlike other podcasts that are produced within the company, through labels such as The Ringer and Gimlet Media, the Joe Rogan show does not carry the nickname “original”.
If you look at the company's catalog you'll see that The Joe Rogan Experience says 'A Spotify Exclusive' and not 'A Spotify Original'. This is in accordance with the agreement between the parties, which has allowed Joe Rogan to retain full creative control over his product. This is what allows Daniel Ek to say that Spotify is the distribution platform and not the publisher of the show.
However, there is also another variable: Spotify has not paid 100 million dollars for each podcast that has been added to its catalog, whether original or exclusive. So, it is not very difficult to think that the relationship that the company has with Joe Rogan is very different from the one it maintains with other podcasts, or with the studios in charge of them. A clear example of this has been the recent decision to close Studio 4 —also known as Spotify Studios—, which was the Swedish company's first bet for productions under this format, but which over time became the “basket of garbage” to which they sent the projects that they did not know where to locate.
Also, as you can read in the full transcript published by The Verge, Ek talks about the need for Rogan as a differentiating factor for Spotify compared to the competition's catalog. “To be honest, if we hadn't made some of the decisions that we did, I'm sure our business wouldn't be where it is today,” he said.
What Spotify implies, then, is that not only has he paid a brutal amount of money to have the exclusivity of The Joe Rogan Experience, but at the same time he has signed him a blank check so that the podcaster can say any nonsense without major consequences. And although the CEO of Spotify denies it, it seems too risky a move to be left to semantics.
I understand the premise that because we have an exclusive deal with him, it's easy to conclude that we stand behind every word he says and believe the opinions expressed by his guests. That's not the case at all.
Daniel Ek, on Spotify's deal with Joe Rogan
A peculiar way of 'washing your hands'
However, it cannot be said that Spotify's position is too surprising. Daniel Ek himself had already stated last year that he did not consider that the company should have editorial responsibility for its podcasts. Moreover, at that time he used a rather peculiar method to defend his position. “We also have a lot of highly paid rappers on Spotify who make tens of millions of dollars, if not more, every year. And we don't dictate what to put in their songs either,” he had mentioned.
We can discuss whether or not what the CEO of Spotify has merits, even because music and podcasts are not monetized in the same way. But the streaming service seems to have mounted a protective shield based on ambiguity from which it will be very difficult to get out, especially while Joe Rogan continues to be its most listened to podcast in the world.
“There are a lot of things that Joe Rogan says that I don't agree with and find very offensive. But let me go back to what I said earlier, if we want to stand a chance of fulfilling our bold ambitions, it will mean having content on Spotify that many of us will not be proud to be associated”, said Ek.
