Star podcaster Joe Rogan was already in trouble for giving airtime to vaccine sceptics. Video clips of him repeatedly using an offensive racial epithet have deepened his difficulties — and those of Spotify. The streaming service reportedly paid the blokey comedian $100mn for exclusive rights to stream his output.
Audio streaming services now find themselves alongside online social networks, such as Facebook, fighting pressure to police content as strictly as traditional media. That task is made slightly easier by their revenue mix, but drift in that direction is unavoidable.
Daniel Ek, founder and boss of Spotify has condemned Rogan’s language, while saying “cancelling voices is a slippery slope”. In keeping Rogan on air, he has shown that Spotify prefers taming expensive talent to dispensing with it.