For media creators, the podcast is the blue chip, attractive for its durability and, unlike videos, requiring only time and opinions to produce. There are now podcasts about nearly everything, running from a few minutes to a few hours, and listening is free. They’re produced by a growing list of big names: e.g., Joe Rogan, Kim Kardashian, Barack Obama, Ted Cruz, and Dan Crenshaw. Spotify is the biggest label for would-be podcasters to grab the largest audiences.
Yet, like so many others in corporate America, Spotify has been caught in a common political bind that pulls in both directions. On one side are woke employees and creators, who have pressured the company to regulate content in the name of “countering misinformation.” When Rogan’s Covid comments and controversial guests (e.g., Robert Malone, a physician who supports using ivermectin) roiled the hypochondriacs of the Left, Spotify deleted over 100 of his episodes. Neil Young and Joni Mitchell yanked their content from the platform. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, though agreeing to stay with Spotify, were also reported to be considering jumping ship.
On the other side are free-speech advocates, who’ve lashed out at the platform for “Big Tech censorship” of creators. Rogan, who has a $100 million deal with Spotify to exclusively release his podcast, had threatened to leave Spotify for rival label Rumble if his content was editorialized. But as the No. 1 podcaster in over 90 markets, he was too big a fish to let go. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek issued a rare reprimand to his woke staff, saying that Spotify “can’t tell content creators what to publish,” though he offered a concession in the form of a “content warning.”
So far, Rogan has stayed with the platform, though deals with other creators seem to be falling through while many users cancel their subscriptions. Though Ek said it’s “too early” to determine the subscriber impact, several signs point to a toll on the company’s bottom line. Most recently, the Obamas, whose podcast is called “Higher Ground,” declined to stay with the platform for its insistence on an exclusive content deal. Apparently, after all the controversy, Spotify’s audience just isn’t big enough to be worth it. It also shuttered its fund for live creators, after the plan didn’t meet growth projections.
The role of media companies is to “host,” not editorialize or censor content. They are the public squares of the 21st century. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act gives platforms legal immunity for content published in exchange for their role as “publishers.” Twitter, Facebook, Google, and others have faced challenges for their failures to meet this standard. As Spotify encounters more woke pressure, it shouldn’t succumb to it.