Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Joe Rogan: Spotify changes the music but not the players
From Neil Young to Joni Mitchell via Harry Windsor and Megan Markle, what's happening on the Spotify streaming platform? All the details
After the abandonment of Spotify by Canadians Neil Young and Joni Mitchell in protest against Joe Rogan's podcast, accused of misinforming about Covid, the Swedish streaming platform has announced a series of measures. But will ethics or interests prevail?
WHAT HAPPENED
It all started with the request of the singer Young to remove all his music from Spotify to express dissent against Rogan, American comedian, author of the podcast The Joe Rogan Experience .
Young was also followed in the same choice by singer-songwriter Mitchell. The accusations against Rogan are those of making disinformation about the pandemic and promoting no vax content.
HARRY AND MEGAN VS ROGAN
Shortly thereafter, Harry Windsor and Megan Markle also made it known that they were hesitant about their collaboration with Spotify. The couple, in fact, who are planning the release of podcasts, books and TV series in the coming months, has signed an 18 million pound contract with the music platform.
“Last April we started expressing concern to our Spotify partners about the all too real consequences of misinformation on Covid on the platform. Hundreds of millions of people can be harmed by bad information every day. We are counting on Spotify to make changes and will continue to work together if it does ”. So the former royal couple said in a statement.
FREE (DIS) INFORMATION: WHAT ROGAN SAYS
Rogan, of Italian and Irish descent, is one of the most influential characters in the American media. In his podcast he invited numerous no vax exponents, discouraged vaccination and promoted unauthorized treatments against Covid. When he contracted the virus in recent months, for example, he said he was treated with ivermectin , a completely useless drug for the treatment of Covid.
THE FAKE WAR AT NO VAX, OR WHAT (NOT) SPOTIFY WILL DO
“There has been a lot of debate over the Covid information on Spotify. We have listened to the criticisms and we are implementing changes to combat disinformation ”. It was the comment of Spotify CEO Daniel Ek who, without making any direct mention to Rogan, attempted to stem the controversy and stop the boycotts.
On Sunday, internal rules were published governing what is and is not allowed in the content on its service. The company, to contain the spread of false and misleading information on Covid, has provided that every transmission that addresses the subject is accompanied by a warning that will send listeners to a page where more information on the pandemic is contained.
BECAUSE SPOTIFY CANNOT ALLOW TO LOSE ROGAN
Rogan's podcast, BBC points out, is not just any podcast, but the most followed on Spotify in all of 2021 and therefore difficult to cancel. There is talk of 200 million downloads per month and 11 million listened to episodes, against Young's 6 million listeners.
In 2020, the Swedish company paid 100 million dollars to get it exclusively.
Spotify, however, is now playing with fire because the internal revolt has been followed by that of the scientific world and now also that of musicians. Young and Mitchell's farewell – and their invitation for other colleagues to join them – is causing investors to worry. In fact, since the beginning of 2021, the platform has lost 25% on the stock exchange .
THE THIN LINE BETWEEN FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND DISINFORMATION
This story then leads to the debate on where freedom of expression ends and disinformation begins. On the one hand, in fact, there is Ek's comment, who, when asked by the Financial Times about what he thought of Rogan's decision to invite the king of conspiracy theories Alex Jones, far-right radio host and white supremacist, said: " We want creators to be free to create. We don't want to say what they have to say ”.
On the other, the opinion of the health experts who, following the intervention of the controversial virologist Robert Malone on the podcast, had sent in 270 a letter of protest to Spotify defining Rogan a "danger to public health".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/neil-young-joni-mitchell-joe-rogan-spotify-cambia-musica-ma-non-suonatori/ on Mon, 31 Jan 2022 09:58:00 +0000.