The biggest news for Spotify today is the company’s handling of the fiasco between Neil Young and Joe Rogan. Last week, Young said he wanted off of Spotify’s platform unless it dropped Joe Rogan. Which Spotify clearly wasn’t going to do given Rogan’s popularity.
U.S. podcaster Joe Rogan apologized and pledged more balance on his show amid a backlash against COVID-19 misinformation on the streaming service that wiped more than $2 billion off its market value last week.
Spotify jumped more than 11%, although the stock remains deep in a correction. In a video posted Sunday, podcaster Joe Rogan issued an apology and promised to be more balanced. Rogan’s podcast sparked a backlash after Rogan and some guests on the show questioned Covid-19 vaccines and the policies of public health authorities.
On Monday, investors appeared to shrug off the controversy that hurt shares last week. As Spotify’s stock price jumped 12%after brokerage Citigroup raised the stock rating to “buy” from “neutral” saying the Swedish company would be able to improve its advertising business.
In a 10-minute Instagram video post on Sunday evening, Rogan apologized to Spotify for the backlash but defended inviting contentious guests.
“If I pissed you off, I’m sorry,” Rogan said. “I will do my best to try to balance out these more controversial viewpoints with other people’s perspectives so we can maybe find a better point of view.”
Rogan is a prominent vaccine skeptic and his views on vaccines and government mandates to control the spread of the virus alienated prominent figures from singer-songwriter Neil Young to guitarist Nils Lofgren to best-selling U.S. professor and author Brene Brown.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said late on Sunday that he might disagree with the views of some individuals on the platform. But that it was “important to me that we don’t take on the position of being a content censor.”
Its new policies include adding an advisory to any pandemic-related podcast that will direct listeners to a COVID-19 hub containing information from medical and health experts, as well as links to authoritative sources.
What’s Next
While Spotify might be in the news for this today, it’s likely the controversy will pass fairly quickly. The reality is that Neil Young no longer being on the platform will have a very small impact on Spotify’s business. Rogan, on the other hand, is the most popular podcast on Spotify and is a flagship for the company.
It doesn’t hurt that growth stocks are up big today, but I think it’s also good that we’re seeing a likely end to Spotify being in the headlines. Investors seem to like putting controversy behind the company, too.
