Spotify CEO Apologizes to Employees For Joe Rogan Backlash

Spotify Technology SA Chief Executive Daniel Ek apologized to employees for the backlash that has followed the emergence of Joe Rogan’s use of a racial slur in previous podcast episodes, reports The Wall Street Journal.

He said that he has no plans to remove the star podcaster from the streaming platform and committed to spending $100 million on music and audio content from what he called historically marginalized groups.

“There are no words I can say to adequately convey how deeply sorry I am for the way ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ controversy continues to impact each of you,” Ek said to Spotify staffers on Sunday, referring to Mr. Rogan’s podcast. “Not only are some of Joe Rogan’s comments incredibly hurtful, I want to make clear that they do not represent the values of this company. I know this situation leaves many of you feeling drained, frustrated and unheard.”

The Spotify executive’s comments doubled down on his statements last week that Spotify is an open platform despite its exclusive deal to distribute Rogan’s podcast and that silencing Mr. Rogan isn’t the right choice. Ek’s letter follows Spotify’s acknowledgment that it was delayed in addressing outcry sparked by rocker Neil Young over Mr. Rogan’s shows about the Covid-19 pandemic and vaccines.

Ek said in his letter that Rogan chose to remove some episodes from Spotify following discussions with the company and Mr. Rogan’s own reflections. Tracking site jremissing.com says 113 of Mr. Rogan’s episodes have been taken off Spotify since Friday.

Rogan apologized for the second time in a week on Saturday after a compilation video emerged showing how he and some of his guests used the N-word numerous times on his show. In a video on his Instagram account, Mr. Rogan said he offered “my sincere and humble apologies” for “the most regretful and shameful thing that I’ve ever had to talk about publicly.”

Meanwhile,  Joe Rogan has responded to a resurfaced clip of him using the N-word almost two dozen times while hosting his podcast, reports The NY Post. 

Calling the clip “the most regretful and shameful thing I’ve ever had to talk about publicly,” Rogan, 54, insisted the video consisted of “out of context” snippets from “12 years of conversations” on his show. 

“It looks f–king horrible. Even to me.” 

He continued, “I know that to most people, there is no context where a white person is ever allowed to say that word, never mind publicly on a podcast, and I agree with that now. I haven’t said it in years.”

He then admits to using the word in his past, but claims it would only be within the context of the conversation.