*Earlier this year, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek responded to the Joe Rogan controversy by vowing to invest $100 million in the “licensing, development and marketing of music and audio from historically marginalized groups.”
The move came after Spotify faced backlash for paying podcaster Joe Rogan the same amount of money and he repeatedly made racist comments on the platform.
Rogan used racial slurs in numerous episodes of his popular podcast, over 70 of which have now been removed from Spotify. Multiple artists and podcasters pulled content from the platform after Rogan’s offensive commentary went unchecked.
“I want to make one point very clear — I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer,” Ek reportedly wrote to Spotify staff in a memo. “We should have clear lines around content and take action when they are crossed, but canceling voices is a slippery slope. Looking at the issue more broadly, it’s critical thinking and open debate that powers real and necessary progress.”
READ MORE: India Arie on Why She Pulled Her Music From Spotify Over Joe Rogan’s Racist Remarks | WATCH
As The Hollywood Reporter reports, Ek reacted to the negative Rogan publicity by offering vague and “half-baked measures” to marginalized communities which, over time, appear to have fizzled out just as quickly as they were announced.
Per Moguldum.com, “no additional path, application page, webinar, or any other form of communication as to the status of such a fund can be found.”
Here’s more from the outlet:
This writer has investigated by inquiring with Spotify’s communications department over the last several months. Communication, if it comes at all, is over long swaths of time only to be told that “my information has been forwarded.” When asked who is actually overseeing the fund, I was told, “Oh, a number of different people,” but I could not obtain any specific names or titles with whom to follow up.
“It’s clear that there was no appetite to get out in front of this issue, it’s been very reactive, which sends the message that they would have rather not dealt with it and now the appearance is they’re trying to buy goodwill,” said Maurice Schweitzer, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business via NBC News. “The thing that’s surprising here is that the CEO didn’t anticipate — and clearly had no plan for — reacting to controversy. On the one hand, he said to his employees, ‘This is going to be an ongoing struggle as we diversify content,’ but he’s clearly not prepared for it.”
Several industry experts criticized the $100M Spotify pledge for not clearly defining which content creators would benefit from the funding and how they will be supported.
“These types of half-baked measures are not going to cut it. I would rather see a specific policy because this is so ill-defined. You don’t know who’s going to benefit. They’re trying to deflect the negative publicity with what amounts to a bribe,” said Anup Srivastava, a business professor at the University of Calgary.
