ET BureauSpotify, the audio streaming company, recently found its reputation besmirchified after its star podcaster Joe Rogan was accused of fuelifying a misinfodemic about Covid vaccinations in an episode featuring the once-banned-on-Twitter-but-not-twice-shy virologist Robert Malone. Owing in part to its $100 million deal with Rogan, who pulls in an estimated 11 million viewers per episode, this is a controversy Spotify did its best to dodgify. But what started as an open letter from 270 medical professionals, snowballified into Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and other septuagenarian classic rockers pullifying their music off the platform, a light reprimand from ex-working-royals-turned-podcasters Harry Windsor and Meghan Markle, and most bummifyingly of all, a $4 billion loss in market value. Young went as far as to promote four months of free music on competing platform Amazon Music (never mind that Amazon's own treatment record of workers is rather spottyfied).
To prevent being further mortified, Spotify pacified its critics by following the age-old handbook of fake solutions to fake news laid out by tech giants misinformation-shamed before it - slap on the 'content advisory' band-aid on future podcasts. A rather small and convenient price to pay, even for a company often slammed for paying musicians a fraction of a cent per stream, non?
To prevent being further mortified, Spotify pacified its critics by following the age-old handbook of fake solutions to fake news laid out by tech giants misinformation-shamed before it - slap on the 'content advisory' band-aid on future podcasts. A rather small and convenient price to pay, even for a company often slammed for paying musicians a fraction of a cent per stream, non?